Standard Terms and Conditions of National Lottery Awards for All

These terms and conditions apply if you got funding after 16 November 2023. If you got funding before this date, you should refer to an earlier version of terms and conditions.

1. By submitting an application to The National Lottery Community Fund (referred to as “we” or “us"), the organisation named in the application (referred to as “you” in these Terms and Conditions) agrees, if awarded a grant, to:

1.1. Use the grant only for your project as described in your application or otherwise agreed with us, and only for expenditure incurred after the date of your grant award;

1.2. provide us promptly with any information and reports we require about the project and its impact, both during and after the end of the project;

1.3. act lawfully in carrying out your project in accordance with best practice and guidance from your regulators, and follow any guidelines issued by us about the project or use of the grant and let us know promptly about any fraud, other impropriety, mismanagement or misuse in relation to the grant and/or any items purchased with the grant monies;

1.4. acknowledge National Lottery funding using our branding in accordance with our brand guidelines;

1.5. hold the grant in a UK based account or building society account, which is in the legal name of the organisation that is applying for funding from us;

1.6. adhere to our guidance on financial controls and banking arrangements, ensuring that no single individual has sole responsibility for any single transaction from authorisation to review and completion and that the account is managed by at least two unrelated and authorised individuals in your organisation;  

1.7. immediately return any part of the grant that is not used for your project or which constitutes an unlawful subsidy;

1.8. comply with our safeguarding policy for grant holders, which is available on our website;

1.9. co-operate with any research or evaluation-related activities which we carry out and further confirm that we may use any part of your application and/or project information for research or evaluation purposes.

1.10. comply with data protection laws and obtain the consent of your beneficiaries for us and you to receive and process their personal information and contact them;

1.11. keep accurate and comprehensive records about your project both during the project and for seven years afterwards and provide us on request with copies of those records and evidence of expenditure of the grant, such as original receipts and bank statements;

1.12. allow us and/or the Comptroller and Auditor General reasonable access to your premises and systems to inspect project and grant records;

1.13. support us in publicising and sharing information about you and your project including your name and images of project activities. In accepting this grant you hereby grant us a royalty free licence to reproduce and publish any project information you give us. You are responsible for complying with data protection laws for any information you provide to us, and will let us know when you provide the information if you have not sought permission for us to use it.

1.14. if your project is being delivered in Wales, enable people to engage in both Welsh and English, treating both languages equally. Welsh speakers must be able to access information and services in Welsh and all materials must be produced bilingually.

2. You acknowledge that we are entitled to suspend or terminate the grant and/or require you to repay all or any of the grant in any of the following situations. You must let us know if any of these situations have occurred or are likely to occur.

2.1. You use the grant in any way other than as approved by us or fail to comply with any of these Terms and Conditions.

2.2. You fail to make good progress with your project or are unlikely in our view to complete the project or achieve the objectives agreed with us.

2.3. You have match funding for the project withdrawn or receive or fail to declare any duplicate funding for the same project costs as funded by the grant.

2.4. You provide us with false or misleading information either on application or after award of the grant, act dishonestly or are under investigation by us, a regulatory body or the police, or if we consider for any other reason that public funds are at risk or you do anything to bring us or the National Lottery into disrepute.

2.5. You enter into, or in our view are likely to enter into, administration, liquidation, receivership, dissolution or, in Scotland, have your organisation’s estate sequestrated. We may seek to recover grant funds from the directors, trustees or officeholders of your organisation if they have directed your organisation to commence insolvency proceedings without first discharging the organisation’s liabilities under this grant agreement.

2.6. You receive any grant money incorrectly either as a result of an administrative error or otherwise. This includes where you are paid in error before you have complied with your obligations under these terms and conditions and Offer Letter. Any sum, which falls due under this paragraph 2.6, shall fall due immediately. If you fail to repay the due sum immediately, or as otherwise agreed with us, the sum will be recoverable summarily as a civil debt.

3. You acknowledge that:

3.1. the grant is for your use only and we may require you to pay us a share of any proceeds from disposal of assets purchased or enhanced with the grant;

3.2. we will not increase the grant if you spend more than the agreed budget and we can only guarantee the grant as long as The National Lottery continues to operate and we receive sufficient funds from it;

3.3. the grant is not consideration for any taxable supply for VAT purposes;

3.4. we have no liability for any costs or consequences incurred by you or third parties that arise directly or indirectly from the project, nor from non-payment or withdrawal of the grant, save to the extent required by law;

3.5. these Terms and Conditions will continue to apply for two years after the grant is paid or until the project has been completed, whichever is later. Clauses 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 2.4, 3.4 and 3.5 shall survive expiry of these Terms and Conditions; and

3.6. if the application and grant award are made electronically, the agreement between us shall be deemed to be in writing and your online acceptance of these Terms and Conditions shall be deemed to be the equivalent of your signature on that agreement.

4. Where you are purchasing vehicles and/or equipment:

4.1. if requested, you must provide us with evidence that the vehicles or equipment are validly owned by you;

4.2. you must retain the vehicles or equipment for the duration of the project and use them only for the project;

4.3. you must not sell or dispose of the vehicles or equipment during that time without first obtaining our written consent and if required, you must pay us a share of the proceeds of any disposal; and

4.4. you must keep the vehicles or equipment safely, in good repair and condition and adequately insured for the duration of the project.