Funding of Hope Not Hate

The request was successful.

Dear Department for Communities and Local Government,

Please advise whether the DCLG has provided any financial contribution to the organization 'Hope Not Hate' in 2012/2013.

If so, please also outline the reason for the funding, the amount given thus far and whether this was intended as a single payment or ongoing.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen Green

N.B. To aid you in answering this question, it has been suggested that this funding may have been arranged through your Integration Division.

Marina O'Neill,

1 Attachment

[Subject only] S Green- acknowledgment-letter.doc

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Dear Marina O'Neill,

As over twenty working days have now elapsed, I am sending you a courtesy reminder regarding my three-part FOI request regarding Hope Not Hate.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Green

Marina O'Neill,

1 Attachment

Stephen

Very sorry for the delay in responding to you. Please see attached response.

Marina

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Dear Marina O'Neill,

Apologies for the delay in responding. You said in your reply to me:

"The department does not hold any information relevant to your request. ‘Hope Not Hate’ has not received any funding from DCLG."

A recent online item has drawn my attention to the published 2012 accounts by the organization known as 'Hope Not Hate' on the Charity Commission website.

As you will see (link below*) on the 2012 published accounts, point 9, page 13 under the classification 'Restricted Funds' the accounts state that they have received £63,373 from the Department for Communities, for a 'Building Communities' project.

Could you please explain the seeming discrepancy between the information provided in the 'Hope Not Hate' accounts and the answer provided to my FOI request by the DCLG?

If appropriate, I would appreciate a revised answer, outlining the reason for the funding and its use as was originally requested.

You will no doubt note the 2013 accounts are also almost due for publication. Perhaps there is also some DCLG funding element for these too?

Best regards,

Stephen Green

* http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Sho...

Stephen Green left an annotation ()

Here is the outline of a further enquiry I have made to the DCLG on this issue:

From: Stephen Green

31 January 2014

Dear Marina O'Neill,

Apologies for the delay in responding. You said in your reply to
me:

"The department does not hold any information relevant to your
request. ‘Hope Not Hate’ has not received any funding from DCLG."

A recent online item has drawn my attention to the published 2012
accounts by the organization known as 'Hope Not Hate' on the
Charity Commission website.

As you will see (link below*) on the 2012 published accounts, point
9, page 13 under the classification 'Restricted Funds' the accounts
state that they have received £63,373 from the Department for
Communities, for a 'Building Communities' project.

Could you please explain the seeming discrepancy between the
information provided in the 'Hope Not Hate' accounts and the answer
provided to my FOI request by the DCLG?

If appropriate, I would appreciate a revised answer, outlining the
reason for the funding and its use as was originally requested.

You will no doubt note the 2013 accounts are also almost due for
publication. Perhaps there is also some DCLG funding element for
these too?

Best regards,

Stephen Green

*
http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Sho...

Link to this

Dear Marina O'Neill,

Please can you confirm your receipt of my supplementary question and whether I might expect a reply in some form?

Then I can best determine whether this clears up the discrepancy or any potential further action(secondary FOI enquiry; request for an internal review; informal or formal complaint to DCLG or formal complaint to ICO).

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Green

Marina O'Neill,

Hi Stephen

Yes I am following up your supplementary question. I hope to get back to you with an answer soon.

Marina

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Marina O'Neill,

Dear Mr Green

Thank you for your email of 31 January requesting clarification of the response I sent you on 7 August 2012 – reference F0007043 on whether ‘Hope Not Hate’ had received any funding from DCLG.
On 20 June 2012 we signed a funding agreement with Searchlight Educational Trust for £66k. Searchlight Education Trust established community partnerships in four areas prone to EDL activity. Partnerships set up newsletters which contained: positive stories from the area that promote shared local identities; advertise events that bring the community together; and provide space for faith, community and voluntary organisations to advertise and encourage participation" and you can find more information about it on our website at https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/b.... Payments were made to Searchlight Educational Trust as follows:

Date Amount paid
6 September 2012 £16,750
22 November 2012 £46,623.38
26 March 2013 £2,626.62
TOTAL £66,000

Searchlight Educational Trust subsequently changed their name to Hope Not Hate Educational Ltd. As the funding agreement and all other documents in the name of Searchlight Educational Trust, was a separate legal entity to Hope Not Hate, none of the info we held fell into the scope of your original request. We were unaware until you drew this to our attention that Searchlight Educational Trust subsequent name change meant our funding showed up in accounts filed under their new name. We are satisfied that the funding for Searchlight Education Trust was used for purposes outlined in the funding agreement and that no funding was used for the purpose of a political nature. Conditions in the funding agreement prevent funds being spent on anything other than educational work (including a prohibition on any political campaigning). If you have any evidence to the contrary we would welcome your drawing it to our attention. You can do that either in response to me or writing directly to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government setting out your concerns and evidence for them.

If you have any queries about this email, please contact me.

Marina

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