Funding
Building Safer Communities 2005 Conditions of grant
BUILDING SAFER COMMUNITIES FUND (BSC)
APPENDIX A: CONDITIONS OF GRANT
These Conditions of Grant are Appendix A to Home Office Circular 21/2005 (Building Safer Communities fund) and should be read in conjunction with it.
1. Introduction
1.1 The purpose of this document is to make explicit the conditions of grant attached to the payment of funds under the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSC).
1.2 This document sets out the purposes of the initiative, the desired outcomes and provides guidance for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships/Community Safety Partnerships in Wales.
2. Statutory Basis for Payment of Grant and Accountability
2.1 The Secretary of State for the Home Department is making this grant payment under the authority of Section 169 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. The grant is for the use of Crime and Disorder Partnerships for the purposes described below.
2.2 The grant is being paid, in the first instance, to the appropriate Local Authority for the area charged with co-operating with other bodies to prepare Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategies, under sections 5 – 7 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
2.3 The appropriate Local Authority Finance Officer is responsible for making the necessary arrangements for local management controls, to ensure that the grant monies are expended for the purpose they were intended, under Section 151 of the Local Government Act 1972.
2.4 The grant conditions are also addressed to the relevant Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership to which grant monies will be assigned to fund projects, under their operational management, once the condition at paragraph 3.3 below is met.
3. Purposes and Uses of the Grant
3.1 The BSC is a key element of the Government's crime reduction strategy.
3.2 The grant is solely for the purposes of funding appropriate interventions under the Building Safer Communities Fund. The fund is aimed at helping communities to:
deliver crime and disorder reduction activity, including activities to address the PSA1 targets of volume crime, fear of crime, as well as gun crime;
focus on crime and drugs work through the context of community engagement, whilst disrupting local drugs markets and tackling drug related crime and associated disorder;
strengthen the ability of communities to resist drugs and act against drug misuse.
deliver a complementary activity plan of situational and social crime reduction interventions, based on what works and which secure the maximum impact on crime reduction outcomes.
deliver a range of activities which are aligned with, complementary to, and have robust links with Neighbourhood Renewal funding.
build the capacity required to deliver strategies successfully, and lever in other sources of funding.
3.3 The grant conditions are not prescriptive about the type of interventions that should be funded under the initiative, but suggest ways in which CDRP plans might best be formulated to achieve the kind of local solutions required. Projects funded under the BSC will need to be justified in the terms of achieving the above outcomes.
3.4 BSC is meant to provide services to the community that would not otherwise be provided. The purpose of the funding is not to shore up, or to replace, mainstream local funding.
3.5 There must be a formal written plan agreed between the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, Drug Action Team and the local police commander, including appropriate targets and milestones before any funds are assigned to a project.
3.6 No aspect of the activities funded by the award may be, or appear to be, party political in intention, use or presentation.
3.7 No additional awards will be made to cover the cost of Value Added Tax, but grant funding can be used to cover the cost of irrecoverable Value Added Tax.
3.8 If the Local Authority or Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership fails to comply with any of the conditions set out in this document, or commits any other breach of faith such as misrepresentation or concealment of information, the Secretary of State may require the repayment of all or part of the grant monies paid, as may be determined by the Secretary of State and notified in writing to the local authority. Failure to resolve an adverse audit report on the funds paid under this initiative may also lead to notification of the need to repay all or part of the grant. Such sum as has been notified shall immediately become payable to the Secretary of State.
3.9 Any grant which is unspent by 31 March 2006 will become repayable to the Home Office Accounting Officer.
4. Reporting Arrangements – Projects and Outcomes
4.1 Partnerships will be expected to spend their allocations to deliver outcomes that meet both national and locally identified priorities. They must prepare a brief report quarterly for Home Office Regional Directors in the Government Offices to provide to the Home Office, outlining progress against their agreed plans and an annual performance report on the uses made of BSC in the financial year. Amendments to BSC plans must also be agreed with the Regional Government Office Crime Reduction Team. A brief, one page annual report should be submitted to the Home Office Regional Director by 30 April 2005 for the financial year 2004/05 or as soon as practicable thereafter. This should outline briefly the key activities carried out in the previous year, with outcomes where these are known. Failure to produce either of these reports in a timely manner may result in funding being reduced or withdrawn.
4.2 The reports should provide an insight into the extent of delivery of projects funded under this initiative and whether the desired outcomes have been achieved.
5. Reporting Arrangements – Finance and Controls
5.1 The Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, to which the award has been made, must at all times be able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Home Office that it has proper financial and other controls in place. The grant is to be identified separately within the local authority accounting system to facilitate a clear audit trail. Any interest received on grant funds, and is clearly demonstrable within the accounting system, should be repaid to the Secretary of State at the end of each financial year.
5.2 Capital/Revenue split : The funding allocated to each Partnership has to be divided between capital and revenue expenditure. The overall fund is divided between capital (27% of the entire fund) and revenue expenditure (73%). The allocation to each partnership will have to be divided accordingly. Partnerships have to spend their capital allocation on capital spending, whereas revenue expenditure may be spent on capital items or on running cost expenditure. Partnerships should also look to trade capital and revenue on the same basis between the BSC and the BCU fund in order to maximise the effectiveness of both funding streams. The capital/revenue split does not apply to the (£25,000) anti-social behaviour element of the fund.
5.3 Capital and revenue spend are defined as in normal accounting conventions. Capital allocations have to be spent on capital spending, but revenue expenditure may be spent on capital items. There is a requirement for a minimum of 27% capital spend.
5.4 Audit : For audit purposes, the Local Authority will need to provide a statement for its expenditure under the programme, and provide this to the auditor appointed by the Home Office. Detailed guidance on audit arrangements will follow separately as soon as this is finalised. The relevant paperwork will also be circulated separately. Any adverse audit report may lead to payments being suspended until and unless the identified problems are resolved. Failure to resolve may result in a request for repayment of all or part of the grant (see para 3.8 above).
5.5 All invoices, receipts, accounting records and other documents relating to the expenditure of the award must be retained for at least six years after completion of the activity funded. These must be made available at any reasonable time for inspection by officials of the Home Office/ National Assembly for Wales, as appropriate, including the Home Office Audit and Assurance Unit, the National Audit Office or those acting on their behalf, to ensure monies have been properly spent. The Comptroller and Auditor General may also investigate the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the funds have been used.
6. Economy
6.1 The Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership to which the award has been made must administer the grant funds carefully and economically and avoid extravagance and waste. The Partnership must also be able to demonstrate it has obtained value for money in respect of any procurement activities. Procurement should follow normal Local Authority tendering procedures.
6.2 Any CCTV systems purchased with the grant funds will need to be properly specified and planned, in accordance with the CCTV operational requirements provided on the crime reduction web site. The Home Office Scientific Development Branch must first be consulted on the technical aspects of the planned scheme and the Home Office Regional Director must subsequently agree the scheme before implementation begins.
7. Capital Assets
7.1 An inventory should be maintained of capital assets purchased using grant funds.
7.2 Any capital asset costing more than £1,000 purchased by the award must not be sold or otherwise disposed of within 5 years of purchase without the prior written consent of the Home Office/NAW, which may also determine how any sale proceeds might be used. The Home Office/NAW must also be informed if any capital asset ceases to be used for the purpose for which it was funded.
7.3 The prior written approval of the Home Office/NAW is required before a mortgage or other charge is raised on an asset funded by the grant.
7.4 Where the grant is used to purchase capital assets they must be adequately stored, maintained, insured and available for inspection on request.
8. Statutory Compliance
8.1 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, to which the award has been paid, must ensure that anyone acting on behalf of the organisation complies with the law for the time being in force in the United Kingdom.
8.2 Compliance includes the requirements of: the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998. In particular, partnerships need to ensure that anyone acting on its behalf does not commit any act of discrimination that is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, as amended by the Race Relations Amendment Act 2001, or the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
9. Information Sharing and Exchanges of Good Practice
9.1 Any information, know how, system or process arising from or relating to an intervention funded wholly or partly from this award (including examples of good practice in the design and implementation of an intervention) shall be shared freely with the Home Office, other Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, Drug Action Teams and other agencies with a drug or crime reduction responsibility.
9.2 Each Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership to which an award has been paid agrees, by accepting these terms and conditions, that it does not regard such information, know how, systems or processes to be of a confidential nature. In particular, it agrees that the parties described at paragraph 9.1 above may use such information, know how, systems or processes for their own purposes. By accepting grant funding, the responsible authority agrees to share data with the Government Office/NAW or the Home Office. Any failure to do so will be a breach of these conditions of grant.
10. Intellectual Property Rights
10.1 Any intellectual property right (including any copyright) arising from or relating to an intervention or project funded wholly or partly by this award that is developed by any organisation to which the award has been made will become the property of the Crown as absolute beneficial owner, without any payment being made to the local authority, as Accountable Body.
11. Corporate Recognition and Publicity
11.1 Any publicity material, press releases, crime prevention material, handouts etc produced as part of the project should officially recognize and promote the financial contribution from the Home Office, meaning that the Home Office logo must appear on the material.
12. Payments
12.1 Payments will be made, on the basis of announced allocations, to the appropriate local authority as follows:
12.2 Funding claimed quarterly in the appropriate way will be paid directly to the relevant Local Authority's bank account. It is not permissible for Local Authorities to 'save up' claims until the end of the financial year. Any claim, which has not been made in a timely way, may be refused payment.
12.3 Payments can only be made to the Local Authority. It is the responsibility of the Local Authority to make further payments to other agencies and groups as required.
12.4 Payments of grant are strictly subject to the conditions of grant being met (see paragraph 3.8 above).
12.5 The Home Office may from time to time vary the conditions of grant.
13. Acceptance of these Grant Conditions
13.1 Please confirm that these terms and conditions are acceptable by signing a copy of this document, in the space provided below, and returning it as soon as possible, to the Home Office Regional Director for your region or in the National Assembly for Wales.
13.2 The document should be signed both on behalf of the appropriate Local Authority Finance Officer and by an accountable person on behalf of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership.
Home Office
31 March 2005
CONFIRMATION
This confirmation document are available to print off and fax/send back:
16Kb
21KbWe formally agree to abide by the above conditions: | |
Name of Local Authority | |
Signature of Local Authority Finance Officer Representative | |
Name of Representative (Print) | |
Position in organisation | |
Date | |
Signature of Accountable person for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership | |
Name of Representative (Print) | |
Position, and organisation | |
Date | |
LOCAL AUTHORITY BANK DETAILS | |
Account number | |
Account name | |
Sort code | |
Name of Bank | |
Address of Bank | |
CRIME REDUCTION TEAM USE ONLY | |
Date received | |
Checked by | |
Date | |
Arrangements accepted | |
Last update: Tuesday, July 22, 2008