National Lottery Bill

I support the amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. If we accept the principle of the Minister’s arguments on the previous amendment that we discussed before the dinner break—which I do not entirely, of course—he has to accept this one; he has no choice because it is the argument that he made. The Minister in another place has already given a commitment that the distributing bodies will report. We have heard from the various distributing bodies that they will report. That is all well and good but we want that in the Bill. I see no reason why it should not be included. We are not asking them to report in any particular way. If there is anything in the amendment to which the Minister objects, I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, will amend it on Report to satisfy any drafting concerns. The Minister has an opportunity to answer the questions that I put to him at the conclusion of the previous debate about how the distributing bodies will report on additionality and what guidelines will be given by the department or the Secretary of State on how they should do that. Or, will no guidelines be given? Are they expected to do that on their own? It would be helpful to be told that. As the Secretary of State has powers of prescription, will he prescribe that they should report? It would be interesting to know that. The Government have moved a long way in agreeing that the distributing bodies should report. However, they have to move a little further and include the measure in the Bill, either by incorporating the wording of this amendment or using some other means to do so.