Clause 1 - Funding of endowments
National Lottery (Funding of Endowments) Bill
4:00 pm
Mr Keith Simpson (Mid Norfolk, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr. Benton. I look forward to serving under your chairmanship, I hope briefly, and I thank all members of the Committee and the Minister for giving up their time to debate the Bill. I particularly acknowledge my fellow Norfolk MPs, including my right hon. Friend the Member for South-West Norfolk (Mrs. Shephard) and the hon. Members for Great Yarmouth (Mr. Wright) and for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb). At one stage, the Bill was called the Norfolk Bill, but as you know, Mr. Benton, it will apply nationally. Most importantly, it has received a lot of cross-party support.
The Bill is extremely useful. It is short and, I hope, uncontroversial, so having all-party support is important. Its predecessor was a Bill introduced in the last Parliament by the hon. Member for Norwich, North (Dr. Gibson), which got as far as Third Reading before falling at the post due to the general election. It was introduced in the other place by Lord Walpole of the county of Norfolk, but was withdrawn. This Bill is completely different. I hope that it is near perfect and meets the requirements of not only those of us who supported the previous Bill, but many organisations that would not have benefited from it. As such, it has Government support.
I turn briefly to the purposes and benefits of the Bill. As I explained on Second Reading, it would amend lottery statutes—the National Lottery etc. Act 1993, as amended by the National Lottery Act 1998—to provide all distributors with an express power to make grants to endowment funds. Current statute gives lottery-distributing bodies the power to distribute lottery money to meet expenditure of the types covered by sections 22 and 23 of the 1993 Act. However, it does not make clear what is meant by ''for meeting expenditure'' or contain any explicit reference to funding endowments.
That was crucial in the purpose of the Bill introduced by the hon. Member for Norwich, North, which was a consequence of the efforts made by the Eastern Daily Press ''We Care'' 2000 appeal. The appeal was specifically aimed at providing funds for the tens of thousands of carers in the county of Norfolk. A consequence of the inability to get round a lacuna at the centre of the 1993 Act has been cross-party support to have the Act amended. The Bill's purpose—to provide benefits for hundreds of thousands of carers nationwide—is worthy indeed.
The Bill's benefits would be, first, clarifying the powers of all distributors; secondly, putting the community fund on the same legal footing as other distributors so that they can fund endowments; and, thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, benefiting charities that want to apply for lottery funding to set up or augment endowments, enabling them to manage their resources more strategically with more security of future funding. I should emphasise something that is absolutely crucial: the legislation is permissive, not mandatory. It would provide an option.
Let me turn to the content and purpose of the Bill in respect of the 1993 Act. Clause 1(2) would amend section 22(3), which deals with the apportionment of money from the distribution fund to good causes, by adding a provision that the allocation for expenditure of the description concerned includes establishing or contributing to endowments in connection with such expenditure.
Subsections (3) and (4) would amend sections 25 and 25B, which deal with the application of money by distributing bodies, by inserting a new subsection at the end of each to make it clear that the distribution of money for meeting expenditure of the description concerned includes the distribution of money for the purpose of establishing or contributing to endowments.
Subsections (5), (6) and (7) would amend sections 38(1), 41(1) and 43B(1)(a), which deal with the grant-making powers of the National Lottery Charities Board—now known under its operating name of the Community Fund—the Millennium Commission and the New Opportunities Fund respectively, by adding to each section a provision making it clear that the power to make grants includes grants for establishing or contributing to endowments.
Subsection (8) would amend section 44(1), which deals with the interpretation of part II of the Act, by inserting a definition of endowments to make it clear that the expression includes permanent endowments. Subsection (9) provides for the amendments to have retrospective effect. Some distributors have made grants to endowments, and the provision would ensure that such payments could not be called into question.
The Bill is straightforward. If I may use shorthand, it would make a simple series of amendments to enable the funding of endowments to benefit hundreds of thousands of people.