G20 Works funding: FOI release

Information requested

“Information on the use of £10,000 which was awarded by the Scottish Government through the Communities Mental Health and Well-being Fund for Adult Projects in year 2023/2024 to the SCIO known as G20 Works, charity no SC052451.

G20 works appears to have received funding from many sources, including public money, in their financial year spanning April 30th 2023- April 30th 2024. However, what this money has been spent on is completely unknown as they did not submit any financial accounts to OSCR within the generous 9 month timeframe following the completion of the financial year. They are now showing as in the red on the OSCR website and on companies house. According to OSCR regulations they are at risk of being removed from the charities register and will be showing as “defaulted” if their accounting is not published within 5 weeks from today.”

In addition you asked for:

1. Details of all Scottish Government monies awarded to G20 Works since March 2022

2. The monitoring and reporting information carried out by the Scottish Government to discern what this £10,000 and any other monies awarded to G20 Works was spent on?

3. Information on what powers and safeguards the Scottish Government have at its disposal to investigate what this money
was spent on?

4. If this matter can be reported to the police as potential fraud and if is this a responsibility of the Scottish Government to do?

Response

The answer to your question is

G20 Works was awarded £10,000 from the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults in 2023/24 to fund a Family Support Group to promote mental well-being and social inclusion.

The Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults is distributed in all 32 regions of Scotland by Third Sector Interface (TSI) organisations who, working in collaboration with other local partners, are responsible for allocating and overseeing the funding to local community initiatives which support mental health and wellbeing. This is based on local needs and in line with national criteria issued by Scottish Government.

The grant terms and conditions relating to this funding to G20 Works is determined by Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector.

TSIs are required to submit monitoring and reporting data annually to the Scottish Government, including information on the number and value of awards granted, types of organisations funded, key priorities and target groups reached, aims of funded projects and overall spend including any underspend. This data informs the content of the Reporting and Monitoring Summary which is published for each year of the Fund. The published reports can be found here. Wellbeing and prevention - Mental health - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

G20 Works also received £20,920.20 via the National Drugs Mission funds administered by the Corra Foundation in November 2022 to deliver support through a series of substance use interventions to young people aged 16-25. This was a multi-year grant and was paid over two years. The grant terms and conditions relating to this funding were determined by Corra.

Corra have advised that grants made through the National Drugs Mission can only be spent on the work outlined in the application associated with the grant. Grant-holders produce reports on the work delivered and give a breakdown of how grant payments have been spent.

Funded organisations are required to keep detailed financial records relating to the spending of their grant, which can be requested by Corra at any time.

Please see links to published National Drugs Mission reports below.

• National Drugs Mission Funds Report 2021-2023
• National Drugs Mission Funds Report 2023-2024

In relation to powers and safeguards that the Scottish Government has at its disposal to investigate what money has been used for, the grant award letter associated with funding sets out the outcomes and deliverables expected along with monitoring requirements to ensure best use of public funding.

The Scottish Public Finance Manual is the guidance that is used in terms of public funding and I have attached a link to this here: Scottish Public Finance Manual - gov.scot, this includes a section on fraud here: Fraud - Scottish Public Finance Manual - gov.scot

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.