National Lottery Bill

moved Amendment No. 26:"Page 9, leave out lines 6 to 11." The noble Viscount said: Amendment No. 26 is, again, something of a probing amendment, in order to discover just how much power the Big Lottery Fund will have when giving advice about grants and distribution of money to other distributing bodies. The Big Lottery Fund says that this is so that all distributing bodies can co-ordinate on such joint matters as setting up a website. Because the Big Lottery Fund will be the biggest fund, it will naturally take the leading role. This will allow the Big Lottery Fund to provide a one-stop shop for the provision of advice about grant applications. In the other place, during the passage of the Bill, Mr Caborn said:"““New section 36D will allow the Big Lottery Fund to take the role of lead distributor by allowing it to give advice beyond its own functions””.—[Official Report, Commons Standing Committee A, 25/10/05; col. 96.]" That causes me concern, as the words Mr Caborn sometimes used during the passage of this Bill quite often did. It implies that the Big Lottery Fund has an even greater ambition: to become not only the biggest lottery distributor, but perhaps, over a period of time, the only lottery distributor. That is of concern. What advice will the fund give? Will it give advice about process, about how to apply for lottery funds, or will it go further? Will it advise on individual projects? We do not know. There is a concern here that, in creating what the Big Lottery Fund has called a ““one-stop shop,”” it could be a barrier between those who wish to apply and the other distributing bodies. We do not want that to happen. I think it is extremely important that the other distributing bodies maintain their identity because they have built up expertise in their area, whether that is sport or heritage. We certainly do not want to lose that. It would be a doubling of resources if suddenly the Big Lottery Fund had its own experts on, for example, sport. We are concerned about this and it would be helpful if the Minister could clarify the situation. I beg to move.