Blunkett attack prompts CF inquiry

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Jane Taylor reports on a midsummer media row threatening to become a lottery crisis

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The Community Fund is facing one of the biggest challenges to its independent operation since it was established as a lottery distributor in 1994. At the instigation of the Home Office, the CF is conducting an internal inquiry into the award of £336,261 to the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns, and is taking legal advice both on the eligibility of the organisa-tion to have received funding and on the purposes to which the grant money could be put. The Community Fund’s next board meeting is 24 September, and the CF expects to announce its decision before the end of the month on whether it is going to withdraw its grant.

The investigation follows a row that erupted during August as a result of a routine CF announcement detailing several UK-wide awards, including that to the NCADC (which has already had £191,000 in a previous CF grant). The Daily Mail ran a story headlined ‘Is this the barmi-est lottery handout of them all?’ criticising the anti-deportation group and, alarmingly, carrying a quote from the Home Secretary David Blunkett, demanding an investigation into the grant and the group.

In the subsequent flurry of media and political activity, a meeting was held on 16 August between the CF, the Home Office and the DCMS to consider the Home Secretary’s concerns. A week later, the Home Office set out its charges against the NCADC in a confidential letter to the CF.

The Home Office’s concerns are thought to relate purely to the NCADC’s website and newsletter content. NCADC’s national coordinator, John O, said ‘The Home Office has been misleading and mischievous, but we have to make a measured response. We have to take the Community Fund seriously and we will respond to all the points made.’ The DCMS is thought to believe that there is no evidence to support the withdrawal of the grant, and that the inquiry process should be a formality. The Community Fund said it had seen nothing in the Home Office’s submissions that made it feel less confident of its initial judgment, but would await the voluntary group’s response and legal opinion.

Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, said: ‘It is disgraceful that the Home Secretary was prepared to jump in without checking his facts, in breach of the voluntary sector compact with Government.’ The row has, however, stirred up an intense level of hostile media scrutiny of ‘dodgy’ and unpopular lottery awards, and prompted prominent media commentators to urge the public to boycott the lottery – unwelcome publicity for Camelot and the distributors alike.

Any legal argument is likely to focus on the murky area of separating out legitimate campaigning or lobbying activity from the pursuit of ‘political’ activity, which the CF may not fund. Lawyers will also look again at whether the NCADC’s literature encourages illegality.