National Lottery Bill

I am sure that the House will be aware of all the pubic concern over the past five years about the high level of national lottery funds’ balances. On television one night, I even had to defend those massive balances to Jeremy Paxman. The National Audit Office concluded in July 2004 that money held in the distribution fund was"““not delivering the intended public benefit””." The Public Accounts Committee concluded last October that"““the public benefit was delivered only when the money was spent in the community””." However, I can tell the House that the Government began to discuss the problems in earnest in 2001. With these amendments, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats want to defend the status quo, and to keep money idle when it should be out in the community. As early as 2002, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State took the initiative and set the specific objective that the overall balances of the distributing bodies should be halved. Under our watch, those balances have since fallen by more than one third, from more than £3.5 billion to £2.25 billion. That is a significant achievement. However, the overall balance has not fallen as far as we would have liked, as Opposition Members have not been reluctant to point out. The PAC report also suggested that progress in that regard should be faster. Clause 8 gives the Government another tool in the armoury for reducing the balances. The Opposition should not criticise our progress in reducing the balances when amendment No. 8 would deny us further powers to speed up that reduction.