Charities invited to bid for £15m DCMS Tampon Tax funding

29 Nov 2018 News

Mims Davies, minister for sport and civil society

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has announced it is making a further £15m worth of Tampon Tax funding available to charities. 

In an announcement this morning, DCMS said that each successful charity will receive “at least £1m in funding”, and encouraged charities across the UK which “support victims of domestic violence or work to reduce rough sleeping and homelessness among women” to apply.

DCMS said that the money would also be made available to charities that; “help vulnerable women through music therapy, encourage them to participate in sport to improve their physical and mental wellbeing or charities that make onward grants to smaller organisations, so they can deliver tailored services to support women.”

The fund opened today and applications will close on Sunday 20 January 2019. 

Since the Tampon Tax Fund was first launched at the 2015 Autumn Statement, DCMS has redistributed some £47m to 70 charitable projects supporting women across the UK. This latest £15m tranche of funding will bring the total to over £60m.

However the sector has been critical in the past of the way in which DCMS has gone about releasing Tampon Tax funding. In December 2017, Acevo called on DCMS to remove a clause in its Tampon Tax funding that effectively gagged charities receiving the funding from using it to advocate or raise awareness about issues. 

Mims Davies, the new minister for sport and civil society, said: “It is vital that disadvantaged women and girls and those who face violence or homelessness are given the help they need to rebuild their lives and reach their full potential.

“This fund is already having a resoundingly positive impact across our country and I am delighted that thousands more women and girls will be helped as a result of this round of funding.”

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