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National Lotteries Bill

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, time moves on. The Government do consult from time to time. We have had one of the widest consultations on the lottery and how it should be distributed, and I think that that is absolutely right. Since the lottery was introduced, we have put it on record many times that it is a great institution. Credit must go to Conservative Members: at least they set up the lottery. That is one of the few good things that they did. We have continued to consult, and it is very evident that the direction that we are now moving in is in concert with what the British people think. If the right hon. Gentleman’s party did the same with its policies on the lottery as we have done, it might have a chance of winning the next election. We need to be able to set out—at the very highest level—the types of expenditure that the Big Lottery Fund should focus on. We are talking about broad areas of expenditure, not projects or programmes, the split between the four parts of the good causes, or the split between the four countries of the UK, and certainly not specific grants. It is absolutely right that that should be done in a transparent and accountable way, and that there should be proper parliamentary scrutiny. That is why we are very clear that it should be done through secondary legislation and be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. We have made available an illustrative order demonstrating how the power to prescribe expenditure will be used in practice. The ability to prescribe devolved expenditure is also central to achieving the greater devolution of decision making to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which is the Bill’s aim. Amendments Nos. 1 and 2 would mean that the Bill’s devolution arrangements would not work: they would retain power for the Secretary of State where the Government wish to devolve it. For the reasons that I have given, we cannot accept those amendments. I hope that the House will agree with the Lords in respect of Government amendment No. 6. We previously debated additionality at some length, and it is clear that all parts of this House support the principle of additionality. Yet decisions on what to fund remain decisions for lottery distributors to make, and I am sure that all Members would agree with that. So, as we have continually made clear, it is not appropriate for us to try to include in the Bill a definition of additionality. I think that there is now general agreement on this position, not least in another place. There is also general agreement that it is right that lottery distributors should report annually on the way in which they have interpreted the principles, as I agreed with them and reported to this House. But the Government accept that there is strong feeling that a requirement for such reporting should be included in the Bill. It is very important to get the wording right, and we believe that this amendment provides the appropriate form of words—one that distributors can meet, and that will allow proper transparency. We must remember that this is a reporting requirement; it is not a definition, and it does not attempt to set out what lottery distributors can or cannot fund. If Parliament should have reason to take issue with distributors’ reports, there will be an opportunity to debate that in any section of the House. As we have pointed out, the fact that lottery funding is additional to Government funding does not mean that it cannot be complementary to such funding. We have also pointed out that agreement on what is appropriate for Government to fund can change over time, as I have just said. Just because something is, or is not, currently funded, does not mean that that will always be the case. For example, some things that the lottery has in the past funded are now funded by central Government, and will probably not be funded by the lottery in future. Moreover, there might be a desire or need now for something that the Government might possibly fund in future. Such cases have certainly arisen in the arts and heritage, where the lottery has provided funding.