National Lottery Bill

I spoke on Second Reading about my concern about the lottery getting involved in spending other people’s money. On the other hand, I understand, as I did then, the considerable expertise that the lottery has as grant makers. My concern then is that many people in the country are not happy about gambling or about accepting the proceeds of gambling, and would prefer to seek grants from organisations that did not get their income from the proceeds of gambling. My concern was therefore that if the Big Lottery Fund is involved in dispensing funds that are not lottery funds, it must find a way of saying, ““These are not lottery funds. Those of you who do not believe in using funds from gambling can apply for these funds and be absolutely clear that this is not lottery money. It is clean money””. This has not popped up in the Bill, and I doubt whether an outfit with a big title like the Big Lottery Fund can actually do what I suggest. Therefore, I am attracted to crossing this out of the Bill, unless someone can find a way of doing it. The clause suggests that the Big Lottery Fund should become a laundry for other moneys. There is another point to make here. I have had experience in the past 30 years of being a grant maker, and there are occasions in grant making when you say, ““I do not want to be by myself on this. We will fund it if we can get such and such to fund it with us. We might put in 25 per cent””. If the laundry then becomes the umbrella that covers several funds, it is uncertain whether that means that there are fewer doors for applicants to knock on. Bearing in mind that this fund has £600 million plus a year to dispense, do we really need to make provision for it to have more money to dispense? I am therefore now inclined to think that the clause is right and that people who want to give money away but who do not have a grant-making capacity and so do not know how to do it have plenty of places to apply to that dispense money well. They have more options than simply going to the Big Lottery Fund. It would be better if this was omitted, and then it would be absolutely clear that the lottery fund is lottery money and that other money is other money.