The Public Accounts Committee has criticised Andy Burnham’s DCMS for spending too much on administration costs as a result of handing out grants.

The committee found that it could cost up to 35p to deliver £1 of support and that the nine principle funding organisations sponsored by the DCMS – including Arts Council England, the Big Lottery Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England – spent £200m between them while handing out grants worth £1.8bn.

However, it found that substantial differences in administrative costs existed between organisations, with Arts Council England topping the list at 35p for every pound given, with the Big Lottery Fund the lowest at 3p.

Edward Leigh, the chair of the public accounts committee, said: “There are substantial differences across the sector in the cost of grant-making, even though administrative processes tend to be similar. This shows that grant-makers must do a lot more to share information and learn from each other, so that administrative costs can be driven down.

“So far, they have been conspicuously unwilling to work together or to contemplate sharing services, systems or office accommodation. Taxpayers will share this committee’s impatience that progress in this area has been so slow.”

A DCMS spokesperson said: "It is absolutely right that administrative costs are kept at reasonable levels. Otherwise the benefits of DCMS grants cannot be maximised to the benefit of the sectors concerned, and the community as a whole.

"However, some small, popular grant schemes which deliver very real benefits to communities need much greater guidance from our NDPBs [non-departmental public bodies]. This means that administrative costs will vary considerably depending on the type and size of grant given and the amount of assistance that applicants receive.

"Our lottery distributors already work closely together to share best practice. However, it is not for DCMS to force all grant-giving bodies to agree a common grant-making framework and while we can – and do – encourage our NDPBs to be bold, innovative and embrace new technology it is not our place to micro-manage them."