To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what funding his Department has (a) allocated to and (b) channelled through Age Concern in each of the last three years; for what purposes such spending has been incurred; and what steps his Department takes to monitor the value for money achieved from such spending. (268719)

In the last three years the Office of the Third Sector has provided funding to three local Age Concern branches. The table shows the funding per year for the past three years:

This funding was provided as part of the Office of the Third Sector GoldStar volunteering and mentoring programme and was provided to these organisations to support their work to involve more volunteers. Each of the 46 organisations that received funding from the GoldStar programme were subject to regular monitoring visits. They were also required to submit accounting and progress reporting documentation each quarter.