National Lottery Bill

I begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) on his elevation to the shadow Department for Culture, Media and Sport team. I am sure that all who have followed the National Lottery Bill debate will enjoy his contribution today. It is said that a week is a long time in politics, but those who have studied the Bill will know that, unfortunately, it has taken a very long time to reach this stage. It is some 60 weeks since it was given its First Reading, on 25 November 2004, and here we are still working our way through it. I want to make clear, as I did in Committee, my own position regarding the national lottery. I believe that my party was wrong to oppose establishing the lottery all those years ago. The evidence is very clear that it has been of enormous benefit to many communities throughout the country. Indeed, since it began, some £17 billion to £18 billion has been given to good causes, thereby benefiting people from all walks of life. Some 200,000 grants have been made and, pleasingly, a very large proportion of them have been relatively small—some £5,000 or less—and have brought real benefit to local communities. There may have been disagreement on the odd lottery grant here and there, but in general everybody acknowledges that those awards have brought real and tangible benefits to such communities. My own community of Bath has received some £50 million in lottery grants over the years, including money for Bath university’s new sports training village, a facility that I believe will enable us to capitalise fully on the benefits of the 2012 Olympics.