National Lottery Bill

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to make a small contribution to the debate. It is always nice to speak to a packed House. I am sure that hon. Members are waiting with bated breath for my words of wisdom—[Hon. Members: ““Hear, hear.””] I thank hon. Members very much. Health, education and the environment are all hugely important things and they are quite rightly the responsibility of the Government. When the people of this country voted for the Government, they thought that they were voting for a Government who would meet their health, education and environment needs. However, they were not aware that the Government were going to use the national lottery as a means of topping up spending that should be central Government expenditure. If the British public knew what was going on today, they would be a trifle concerned. We heard from the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) about the various initiatives that have been funded by lottery money already. Some 529 pieces of cancer scanning equipment have been funded at a cost of £93 million. Of course that equipment is hugely important and much welcomed by those whose lives it saves, but should it be funded by lottery money, or through central taxation? We have set up healthy living centres at a cost of £300 million and information and communications technology training for teachers and school librarians at a cost of £231 million. Out-of-school learning hours have been funded at a cost of £180 million. Those are vast sums of money. The hon. Member for North-West Leicestershire (David Taylor), who is no longer in the Chamber, suggested that we were talking about trifles and mere pennies, but we are not—we are talking about upwards of £1 billion. The Treasury already takes 12 per cent. of all money spent on the national lottery.