Around 17 per cent of applicants to the government’s £100m Transition Fund are not registered charities.

The Cabinet Office confirmed in response to a Freedom of Information request from Civil Society that there were over 1,700 applications to the £100m Transition Fund, of which 1,414 were from charities.

Rosemary Mitchell, social investment policy manager at the Office for Civil Society, told Civil Society that the rest of applicants were either social enterprises or community interest companies, which are also eligible for funding from the Transition Fund.

She also confirmed that the total amount requested by charities seeking funding from the £100m Transition Fund was £135.31m - while £170m was sought by all organisations as minister for civil society Nick Hurd said at a Public Administration Select Committee hearing last month.

The first payments from the Transition Fund were made last month.