My Lords, I hope that we are not going to disappoint my noble friend or even the noble Lord in terms of the position of the Opposition. As someone who has spent a lifetime trying to raise money—for causes that were perhaps difficult, like the Labour Party campaign—I understand the importance of lotteries, and the importance of a range of options when it comes to raising money. However, we have to understand that this proposal would considerably change the lottery regulations, and such a change—again, I am glad that my noble friend Lord Dubs is not here—would need detailed study regarding its consequences. Not just the National Lottery but also smaller lotteries may be squeezed by
the larger society lotteries that can expand and push the smaller ones aside. The Opposition would want to discuss that in detail before we could consider any changes.
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My strong starting point, which we heard in the debate yesterday, is that the “one national lottery” system remains the best model to achieve the maximum return for good causes. Noble Lords made that point very strongly at Question Time yesterday, and I was very pleased to hear the Minister respond likewise—that the National Lottery has done a huge amount and that the principle was worth defending. We know that actions or changes that impact on sales of National Lottery tickets will have a huge impact on all the very good causes that my noble friend Lord Rooker mentioned. We do not know what the impact would be, which is why I am articulating caution.