Current status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 December 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding has been allocated to implement the Volunteering Strategy in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06 and whether there are any plans to increase funding of the strategy in future years.
Implementation of the new volunteering strategy is being supported from within the level of resources available for distribution by the Scottish Executive Voluntary Issues Unit (VIU). In both 2004-05 and 2005-06 the VIU has £19.683 million available for distribution to the voluntary sector.
There is no ring-fenced financial provision for the cost of implementing the volunteering strategy. We expect the creation of a robust culture of volunteering and the dismantling of barriers to volunteering throughout Scotland to be part of the everyday activities or organisations in the voluntary sector, not a separate and discrete activity.