National Lottery Bill

I thank the Minister for setting out in some detail the Government’s approach to the clause. We should remind ourselves that this is not simply about amending an existing power; it is a wholly new clause, which will be Section 25E in the 1993 Act. I was grateful to a number of noble Lords who have a considerable amount of experience in this area whether as Ministers or distributors. The more the debate went on, the more I thought the two amendments are highly compatible. Noble Lords were in favour of vigorous publicising of projects funded by the National Lottery, but they did not expect distributors to publicise participation in the National Lottery itself. That is an important distinction to make. The more the Minister spoke, the less sure I was about paragraph (c) in particular. The noble Viscount, Lord Astor, and my noble friend Lord Phillips made some telling points. This issue is where some of the concerns lie. As regards the may/shall argument, I largely accept the Minister’s point. The essence of the amendment is to ensure that the distributors are vigorous and participate in the good causes common brand. I very much hope that that will continue and that they take up the challenge to ensure that projects publicise the source of their funding and so on. For that reason, it is helpful to hear from noble Lords who have ministerial experience. I do not believe, however, that the Minister has really answered the questions about paragraph (c):"““encouraging participation in activities relating to the National Lottery in general””." That is a very broad phrase. The Minister talked about National Lottery day. What exactly is National Lottery day if it is not a way of encouraging participation in the lottery? It is not purely about the projects and their funding. It seems to me that paragraphs (a) and (b) cover that entirely satisfactorily. Why have we got paragraph (c)? Returning to the broad principles, I think that we are groping towards agreement on wanting these projects and wanting some of the negative publicity about the National Lottery to be dispelled by pointing out the benefits of lottery funding, but there is a sting in the tail in the clause which I do not believe that the Minister has adequately answered. We shall give serious consideration to returning to paragraph (c) on Report. But in the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 12 not moved.] Clause 11 agreed to.