Payments into the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund etc. Order 2007

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his careful wind-up speech, and I can reassure him that he has done the job he set out to do. This was not an order that we should have looked at lightly or passed quickly; our serious debate today has demonstrated many different aspects of this, and the concerns that noble Lords have about it. Some very interesting points have been made. The noble Lord, Lord Howarth of Newport, had some extremely interesting ideas; I hope that the new Secretary of State will explore some of them. The noble Earl, Lord Caithness, pointed out a fundamental truth—one that I know the noble Lord, Lord Coe, is extremely well apprised of, as are other members of LOCOG, the ODA and so on; that is, that these Games must be seen as being for the whole nation, not simply for London. Otherwise, how can we persuade good causes in the nations and regions, which may be losing out in the short term, that they should forgo some of their income for the Games? How can we persuade them of the benefits? The Minister, in winding up, made further points on the key parts of the package, so to speak. We on the Liberal Democrat Benches believe it important to go forward with it. He has reiterated the £750 million cap and talked about the speed of raising that amount. He has also talked about the GPT review, and it is highly significant that the Treasury has made that shift in its thinking. Even though the Minister cannot give assurances about that review, I very much hope that it will be quick and will result in early action. Further, even though the aspect of the grey lotteries is key and a difficult one to grapple with, it is important that the National Lottery legislation order is brought up to date. Quite frankly, commercial lotteries should not be able to trade off the back of all the goodwill that has been established by the National Lottery over the years. We on these Benches will not push the amendment to a vote. When I tabled it some months ago, it was at a time when we were instituting discussions with the former Secretary of State about the way forward and how we could mitigate the effect of this order. I am glad to say that we have a package which, if it comes together, will go a long way towards mitigating its effect. That is extremely welcome. I thank the Minister and his colleagues for what they have done and I hope that we are now in a position to make sure not only that we have a highly successful Games that are properly funded, but also that in the process we will not find that our good causes are disadvantaged. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. On Question, Motion agreed to.