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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are considering using the underspend in the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme to lift the cap on individual claims in the second half of the 2025–26 financial year.

Government has allocated up to £23 million to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme in 2025/26. This year’s scheme will end on 31 March 2026 or when the budget is exhausted, whichever is the sooner.

Applications can be made throughout the year and are paid on a weekly basis. In order to help applicants plan, we publish an online tracker showing remaining funding. This indicates remaining budget and is not an underspend. We typically see an upsurge in claims towards the end of the financial year.

Altering the scheme's established criteria during the course of the financial year would not be fair on those organisations whose claims have already been paid, or on those who intend to claim later in the year and may find budget unavailable. We do not have plans to amend or remove the cap.