Inland safety boat charities: grant funding allocation and management processes

The government announced in the Budget 2014 that it would make available £5 million in grant funding to charities operating inland waterway safety boats. The funding will run over a 5 year period.

The Department for Transport is setting up and administering the grant scheme. To make sure that we get the process right, we’re seeking your views on the following:

• who can apply for funding
• how can we make sure we award the funding to those who can make best use of it
• whether the grant should be for capital items, operational costs or compensation for VAT/excise duty costs
• how can we make sure that the schemes that we award funding to are designed to be sustainable
• how we can make sure we get value for money
• what measurements should we use to evaluate applications
• whether grant awards should be accompanied by a commitment by the recipient
• how the grant funding should be distributed
• any other thoughts and comments you would like to provide