National Lottery Bill

It will come as no surprise to the Committee to know that I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, who expressed in three or four graphic sentences what will take me rather longer to express, and I will merely be endorsing his good sense. This is about providing advice to people who apply to the lottery for funding. The Big Lottery Fund is the largest distributor and will have the resources to give that advice. It will organise telephone helplines and a lottery funding website. We should not underestimate the difficulties that ordinary people, particularly those running village and community halls, have in knowing how to apply to the lottery and which fund they should approach. This provides the capacity to advise people how best they can help themselves. I cannot see a great deal wrong with that, as the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, so clearly demonstrated.