National Lottery Bill

The Minister wants to proscribe only when he wants to proscribe. He does not want anybody else to proscribe; that is the fact of it. The danger is that, in giving out 50 per cent of the proceeds, the Big Lottery Fund could give a huge grant. Therefore, anything over 25 per cent would be such a vast amount. Quite frankly, I totally discount the Minister’s response about more work, and so on. He should have crossed that out rather quickly and not bothered with it, since it rather demeaned his argument. There will not be, at the end of the day, many of these, and I cannot see the Government encouraging another dome—at least, not if they have any sense. There was a glimmer of hope when the Minister said that the Government would encourage smaller projects. If the Big Lottery Fund was tempted to give up to 25 per cent of its vast amount of money to one project, as has happened in the past, there would be a public outcry. I hope that the Government and the Big Lottery Fund both now recognise that; as they probably do, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.