Charitable and Voluntary Sector

Baroness Anelay of St Johns Excerpts

Thursday 30th April 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anelay of St Johns (Con)]

My Lords, I welcome the significant measures that the Government have taken so far to reduce the impact of Covid-19 on the ability of charities and the voluntary sector to continue their valuable work.

I want to refer to the challenges faced by charities whose main work is carried out overseas, especially in countries that are eligible for overseas development assistance. Like others, they face huge financial losses incurred by the immediate loss of income from charity shops and fundraising events. Oxfam, for example, is asking that the Government meet urgently with charity retailers to discuss limitations to the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund and to find a solution that works for the high street while complying with EU competition rules.

The extra challenge is the uncertainty about the amount that charities might receive in project support funding from DfID. This month, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated that the UK economy is expected to contract by 12.8% this year, thus shrinking the size of the 0.7% of gross national income allocated to ODA. Some in the media have expressed concern about continuing ODA when we face Covid-19 here. Surely it is right to help charities to continue their ODA-funded work, which supports, for example, the provision of vital basic health services.

It makes economic sense too. Abiy Ahmed, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, said recently:

“Access to basic health services remains the exception rather than the norm … If Covid-19 is not beaten in Africa it will return to haunt us all.”


He is right.