National Lottery Bill

moved Amendment No. 55:"Page 13, line 5, leave out ““for a charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purpose”” and insert ““—" (a)   by charities, or (b)   by institutions, other than charities, that are established for charitable (whether or not those purposes are charitable within the meaning of any rule of law), benevolent or philanthropic purposes.”” The noble Lord said: The Bill defines ““charitable expenditure”” as,"““expenditure for a charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purpose””." Abbreviated, that is: ““charitable . . . purpose””. That will be clarified when the new Charities Act arrives. The definition may not change a lot, but the Act will set out in greater detail what a charitable purpose is, and people will know where they stand. This amendment would delete,"““charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purpose””," but let charitable expenditure be the expenditure incurred by charities—that is clear; we know what a charity is—and institutions other than charities that have established the charitable, benevolent or philanthropic purposes. I see the point in my noble friends putting their names to this amendment, because it brings us back to our old friend additionality. The reason for pursuing this amendment is to be absolutely clear that there is a distinction between what is charitable, and done by others, and what is government expenditure, which, for reasons we all understand, can now come under this Bill. The amendment gives the Minister a chance to spell out the additionality issue once more and to be clear about this 30 to 40 per cent and 60 to 70 per cent. I would not mind pursuing that last point a bit further. There is a big difference between 30 and 40—you add a third. The distinction between 60 and 70 is rather less. People will want to know that it will not just be 39.9 per cent and 60.1 per cent year after year. There needs to be clarity here. This is an opportunity for the Minister to allay some of the concerns that people have, some of whom have contacted us. We share those concerns. I beg to move.