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Tories promise Office of Civil Society if in power

Finance | Vibeka Mair | 4 Jun 2008

The Conservative Party plans to scrap the Office of the Third Sector and establish a more wide-ranging Office for Civil Society (OCS) if it wins the next general election.

Party leader David Cameron (pictured) announced the proposal this week at the launch of the Conservatives’ social enterprise Green Paper A stronger society: Voluntary action in the 21st century.

The paper, which outlines the party’s first stage of its manifesto for the voluntary sector, suggests establishing an Office for Civil Society which would be strengthened by unifying responsibilities for civil society across Whitehall.

The Conservative Party has also pledged to beef up scrutiny of voluntary sector departments with a joint civil society select committee who would monitor the proposed Office for Civil Society, Compact Commission, Charity Commission and other senior officials from the public sector.

Other key pledges in the Green Paper included simplifying gift aid and the system for Criminal Records Bureau checks, longer-term contracts focused on outcomes and replacing the Big Lottery Fund with a Voluntary Action Lottery Fund.

The Voluntary Action Lottery Fund would include a complete ban on serving governments using funds from lottery resources, to prevent “repeated raids on the lottery good causes that had part-funded the 2012 Olympics”, the paper said.

Plans welcomed by sector bodies

The proposals have been praised by top figures in the voluntary sector. NCVO chief executive Stuart Etherington welcomed the idea of an Office for Civil Society and longer-term contracts. Earlier this year Etherington told Charity News Alert he preferred the term civil society because it defined the sector in relation to those it worked with and for, rather than to government or business.

Acevo chief executive Stephen Bubb praised the Conservatives for recognising that the voluntary sector should make a profit on contracts and the Institute of Fundraising said it looked forwarded to discussing proposals for the gift aid system with the party.

However, Phil Hope, Labour minister for the third sector accused David Cameron of “shallow salesmanship for charities”.

“More than half the pledges in the document today are already Labour government policies that are policies with charities,” he complained.

He added: “The Tory attitude towards the third sector is patronising and dangerous. Their plans show they would leave charities to deal with some of society’s most difficult problems without the money needed to do it, hoping for hand-outs rather than being funded properly to do their important work. David Cameron’s real agenda is about delivering services ‘more cheaply’ by placing the burden on the voluntary sector.”

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