The Big Lottery Fund has today announced an £11.25m investment in social impact bonds.

The multi-million pound investment marks the first time the grantmaker has ventured into the burgeoning field of social investment, a field in which the coalition government has showed repeated and early interest.

Prison reoffending will be the first area to be funded via BIG’s social impact bonds, with the pilot at Peterborough Prison due to receive £6.25m.

The remaining £5m will be used to increase awareness of social investment and to develop other social impact pilots.

Social Finance has been selected to distribute and manage the funding programme.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “At a time of tight public finances, social impact bonds represent a new and innovative way of attracting investment from outside the public sector and by funding Social Finance’s work we are hoping to pave the way for many more similar projects across the UK.”

The announcement of the investment comes as the future of BIG and other lottery funders is under review in a government consultation about how they should fund going forward.