Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of the total amount of funding from the public purse given by his Department to (a) civil society and (b) campaigning bodies in each of the last five years.

Civil Society forms an essential part of our communities up and down the country. It includes large, national charities, social enterprises, volunteers and small grassroots organisations but what joins them all is the idea of creating social value to help build a better society.

Government funding to civil society is ring-fenced for particular projects or programmes. Grant agreement terms and conditions prohibit grant funding being used for paid for lobbying and political campaigning.

The figures quoted below represent the total amount of expenditure incurred by the Office for Civil Society since it joined DCMS as part of a Machinery of Government transfer. Any information prior to 2015-16 would be held by the Cabinet Office.