National Lottery Bill

I am concerned about allegations about the lack of public confidence in the new management of the lottery fund. You have just made reference to money available for the elderly, but I should like to give the example of a pot of money available for elderly carers in Islington who are in their 80s and 90s and look after their 50-year-old children. That money is not available from local authorities because the needs of those elderly people and their children are not great enough for them to receive social security assistance. Money is therefore available from the lottery. If people in Islington were asked whether that is an appropriate use of lottery money, I can assure the hon. Gentleman that they would be fully in favour in it. A 93-year-old woman who cared for her 57-old child—the daughter was suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s because she had Down’s syndrome—fell down the stairs and was offered two hour’ help by social services. Lottery funding, however, paid for people from a voluntary organisation called Centre 404 to provide her with proper support. Without the lottery or imaginative funding, that money would simply not be available. That is why we need the lottery and why we need changes to it.