The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spent £1.02bn on civil society, according to its annual report and accounts, published today.
All four of the portfolios in the DCMS name had lower spend than civil society, according to headline figures in the accounts. Digital received £112m; arts, culture and libraries received £757m; media and creative industries received £100m; and sport received £463m.
Civil society is the department’s second largest spend. The largest spend is on public service broadcasting, which chiefly refers to the BBC. This accounts for £3.27bn, almost half of the department’s budget.
The spending on civil society is not broken down in the report, although it includes a spend of £255.5m on the Office for Civil Society.
Based on previous reports, it is likely that most of the spending on the OCS went to the National Citizen Service, a volunteering programme for 16 and 17-year-olds, which received £191.3m to fund six-week placements for 93,000 participants.
The DCMS accounts show that spending on the Office for Civil Society is due to fall in the current financial year to £246.2m, before rising to £294.9m in 2018/19 and £343m in 2019/20. This is largely due to changes in the number of participants due to be recruited to the National Citizen Service.
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