HOME OFFICE INTERVENTION A THREAT TO 'ALL CAMPAIGNING CHARITIES'
POLITICAL interference with National Lottery funding threatens the future of all campaigning organisations and charities and will cause irreversible damage to the reputation of the fund and the lottery itself, Green MEPs Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas said today.
Their comments came in a personal appeal to Community Fund chief executive Richard Buxton to reinstate its £300,000 grant to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, which it suspended on Monday following an unprecedented intervention by Home Secretary David Blunkett.
Home Office and Culture, Media and Sport Department officials are to meet with managers at the fund - which is supposed to be independent of the Government - to discuss the grant tomorrow (Friday).
Dr Lucas and Mrs Lambert, in a letter to Mr Buxton, said: "We urge you to resist this unprecedented and unwarranted political interference into a funding decision, which threatens the ability of the Community Fund to carry out its work effectively and according to its mandate.
"The NCADC provides a vital lifeline for asylum seekers whose applications are incorrectly rejected by the Home Office or the courts. It has assisted 100 families and individuals prove their legal right to remain in the UK despite initial Home Office rejections. In each of these cases leave to remain was granted within the UK's legal and political framework - not outside it.
"We hope you will reinstate NCADC's grant, without which the organisation will be unable to carry on its essential work, not only for the sake of the organisation and its vulnerable clients but for the sake of all campaigning organisations and charities supported by the fund and for the sake of public confidence in the Community Fund itself."
ENDS
For more information please contact Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280 or 0776 997 0691
Note
to Editors: A copy of the MEP's letter (1 page) follows this release.
Richard
Buxton
Chief Executive
Community Fund
Corporate & UK Office
St
Vincent House
16 Suffolk Street
London SW1Y 4NL
Thursday, August
15 2002
Re: Suspension of Community Fund grant to NCADC
Dear
Mr Buxton
We were very concerned to read of the suspension of your recent 3-year grant to the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns (NCADC) following the intervention of Home Secretary David Blunkett and Culture Minister Tessa Jowell. Without this grant NCADC would be unable to continue their essential work and a group of very vulnerable people will lose one of their few champions.
We understand you are to meet with officials from both departments this Friday, August 16, and urge you to resist this political interference, which, as you know, threatens not just the NCADC but the future of all campaigning organisations and charities that receive funding from the Community Fund.
We would particularly like to draw your attention to the following points:
· This intervention
into a funding decision is unprecedented and unwarranted political interference,
which threatens the ability of the Community Fund to carry out its work effectively
and according to its mandate.
· The NCADC has received funding from
the Community Fund in its former guise as the National Lottery Charities Board
for three years, during which time it has met all accountability requirements
and always been open and transparent about its work.
· The NCADC provides
a vital lifeline for asylum seekers whose applications are incorrectly rejected
by the Home Office or the courts. NCADC has assisted 100 families and individuals
demonstrate their legal right to remain in the UK despite initial rejections from
the Home Office. In each of these cases leave to remain was granted within the
UK's legal and political framework - not outside it. Many of the families supported
do not have the necessary knowledge and experience of these systems to have been
able to challenge the incorrect decisions without the NCADC's information and
assistance.
· At a time when people facing deportation find it increasingly
difficult to find any legal representation the guidance and advice offered by
the NCADC has never been more necessary.
We hope you will consider these points and resist political interference, for the sake of people facing deportation due only to incorrect application of the law, for the sake of the invaluable NCADC and for the sake of all campaigning organisations and charities supported by the Charity Fund. Not least we urge you to deny the Home Office a precedent for such interference in your funding decisions, a precedent which can only lead to reduced public confidence in the Community Fund itself.
Yours Sincerely,
Jean Lambert MEP (Green, London)
Dr Caroline Lucas MEP (Green, South
East England)