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National Lotteries Bill

I, too, am delighted that we are coming to the end of this rather long process; the passage of the National Lottery Bill through both Houses. Like the Minister I congratulate the Bill team on their stamina and I pass on my congratulations to the leader of that team on her marriage. I hope very much that she is having an enjoyable honeymoon. As the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) pointed out, the Bill started its passage back on 24 November 2004. It was interrupted because of the general election and Second Reading took place on the Floor of the House on 14 June last year. During that debate, I was able to acknowledge the fantastic work done in each and every one of our communities as a result of the distribution of money raised by the lottery. I also expressed my view that the Liberal Democrats had got it wrong when, at the time of the setting up of the national lottery under the Conservative Government, we opposed it. I still think that we were wrong to have done so, as the lottery has done sterling work. During the Bill’s passage since 14 June last year, I believe that significant improvements have been made, as others have already said. The briefing from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations states:"““We believe that the Bill has been significantly improved as a result of the amendments and debates around upholding the additionality principle, maintaining the independence of lottery distributors and ensuring that the National Lottery provides sustainable funding streams to the voluntary and community sector.””" I agree with much of that, but I also agree with the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster that, in respect of additionality, that is rather over-egging the pudding. I continue to be concerned that we have not achieved as much as we would like in respect of enshrining a definition of additionality in the Bill—the Prime Minister said that that would be a good idea—in order to provide a benchmark against which to judge the decisions of the various lottery distributors. The Minister is right to be concerned, as he hinted he was, about aspects of health spending. He said that it would not be right for lottery money to be spent on aspects of health that were being funded by the Government, but as the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster pointed out, under that definition, whatever aspects of health the Government choose to spend money on at any one time will be sacrosanct and the lottery can come in and fill the gap. It is interesting to read what it says on the Department of Health’s website. Under the heading, ““Why can’t Lottery money be spent on the National Health Service?””—an interesting question—the website states:"““The Government does not believe it would be right to use Lottery money to substitute for NHS services that are paid for through taxation. It is committed to the principle that Lottery funds should be used to support only initiatives that are additional to health services provided through Government expenditure.””" But it then continues:"““Lottery money for projects which support preventative health care and health promotion is available, through the Big Lottery Fund.””" However, those are aspects on which NHS money is currently spent, so there is already confusion on the matter. Although the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster seems to be smiling at me and nodding in agreement with everything I say, we should perhaps remember that the Conservative party has not been absolutely straight on this issue. It is worth reflecting that, before the last general election, the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr. Cameron)—now the Conservative party leader—announced on the ““Today”” programme his plans for a national school leaver programme. The presenter asked him how it would be funded and he replied, on 4 January last year:"““Well we want to look at that, there is the National Lottery, there are all sorts of programmes we can access.””" He was clearly interested in getting his mitts on lottery money, as confirmed in the Conservative manifesto, which announced that the party’s Club2School sports scheme was to be funded by £750 million of lottery money. The Conservative party has not been quite as clean on this issue as it might have been. The key issue relates to the Big Lottery Fund, which is a combination of the Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund. My party was opposed to the establishment of the New Opportunities Fund because it was going to distribute on a basis entirely determined by the Government, thus totally eroding the principle of additionality. As I have said, the New Opportunities Fund is to form part of the Big Lottery Fund and we therefore continue to have concerns about its running. We all know that the Big Lottery Fund has existed for more than a year—indeed, I have a Big Lottery Fund T-shirt and mug—yet we continue to debate the measure that is meant to establish it. However, it already exists and we must accept that. It was crucial to ensure that the Big Lottery Fund is subject to no greater opportunities for Government interference than any other lottery distributors. Under the original Government proposals, that would not have been the case. The Big Lottery Fund would have had to comply with a string of directions from the Secretary of State. Both Opposition parties wanted to ensure that it had to comply only to the same extent as other lottery distributors. I am therefore delighted that, after pressure in the House and in another place, the Government have acceded to our request. The amendments would ensure that the Secretary of State had the same ability to instruct the Big Lottery Fund and the other lottery distributors. It is therefore right that the wording of the amendments mirrors that of section 26(1) of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. We are delighted to support the amendments because they would effect what we wanted to achieve from the outset.