Office of the Third Sector Homepage
Last updated: 23 November 2008
The Government consulted on a scheme to reinvest money from dormant bank and building society accounts into society, while protecting consumers' rights to reclaim their money.
The consultation was jointly announced by Ed Balls, the then Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and Ed Miliband, the then Minister for the Third Sector, in May 2007.
The consultation document sets out proposals to effectively and efficiently distribute assets which remain unclaimed, and follows an initial consultation on the scheme, published on 20 March 2007.
The document suggests using the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) as the main body for distributing unclaimed assets in the UK. BIG has a nationwide infrastructure capable of handling assets on this scale, as well as extensive experience of delivering community action programmes.
The focus of these resources in England will be on youth services, but the Government would also like to use some of the assets to develop the social investment market and contribute to the long-term development of the third sector.
The consultation ended on 9 August 2007, and the Government published its response on 8 November 2007:
Further details of the consultation are available from HM Treasury [external website].