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National Lottery Bill

The answer is straightforward: those who seek to obtain resources, grants and support from money which does not flow from the Big Lottery Fund will not go to it. If they want support from an organisation such as the Carnegie Trust, they will go to it. All we are indicating is that where the Carnegie Trust can see that the Big Lottery Fund has got a scheme in place for projects which the Carnegie Trust can enhance and which can hit the same objectives that the trust would otherwise deliver through its own resources, its own organisations and its own structure, it can now fund the scheme jointly with the Big Lottery Fund. In those circumstances, the Carnegie Fund might take the decision to use the resources that the Big Lottery Fund can provide, and it would not make sense to shut off the Big Lottery Fund from that. I understand the principle behind the noble Lord’s position. Of course it is absolutely right that people should have access to resources from sources other than the Big Lottery Fund—particular those who look upon the Big Lottery Fund as a beneficiary of gambling, to which they object—and they will go to those other sources. The only time the Big Lottery Fund would enter the picture is where other organisations want to facilitate their distribution through the help it can give.