National Lottery Bill

My Lords, the Minister said that this would require judgments to be made outside the Heritage Lottery Fund. If the Minister looks at my amendment with care, he will see that is not the case. It enables the Big Lottery Fund to fund an acquisitions fund, and I clearly said in moving the amendment that all decisions on individual applications would of course remain with the Heritage Lottery Fund and not involve the Big Lottery Fund. I am sorry that the Minister did not take that into account in seeking to address my concerns. I can see that I will not make much progress with this amendment, which is a pity because with one hand the Government are encouraging distributing bodies to wind down their balances, meaning—particularly when it comes to the National Heritage Memorial Fund, with its many long-term commitments—that they sometimes do not have money available to make quite large and rapid grants. As I have explained, there is often only an eight-week opportunity to buy something; it is then quite difficult to get through the application process. The Government are on the whole not addressing this problem, which is disappointing. At some point the Government will be forced to do so, when a major national collection runs the risk of going abroad and they will not have done enough to safeguard those interests. They will have to address the issue in the future. I am sorry that the Minister has been unable to be more forthcoming in his answers. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 3 not moved.] Clause 8 [Reallocation of funds]: