Clause 16 - Property of the Levy Board
Horserace Betting and Olympic Lottery Bill
10:15 am
Mr Don Foster (Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I congratulate the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire on using the amendment as an opportunity to raise the importance of the capital fund. He wishes to add a word to the clause did not concern him earlier because the same phraseology is used in clause 2 about the transfer of the Tote. ''Assets'' is not mentioned there, but perhaps there is a difference between the two and a reason why it should be added to clause 16 and not to clause 2. Be that as it may, it is important to obtain some comments from the Government about the capital fund.
Earlier, I said that until recently we all knew the new arrangements. They were not in the Bill but we knew the intention. As discussed, the intervention of the OFT has made that extremely difficult. It is worth remembering that in the previous arrangements the intention clearly was to follow the line of argument advanced by the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire. If we consider the report on future funding produced in October 2000 by the BHB, along with its recommendations for the basis of the hoped-for new deal to replace the levy, it said:
''The Capital Fund, subject to Government confirmation, will be transferred to BHB. BHB will then transfer it to a Trust for the duration of the agreement between the BHB and RCA to be administered by three Trustees. The Fund will be set initially at £50 million and be available to racecourses and other organisations which are currently HBLB beneficiaries for capital improvements.''
It is clear that the original intention was a transfer to the BHB, and that by working with others it would have established a trust with several benefits, not least that it would have been a tax-efficient operation.
In any new plan that is developed for the replacement of the levy, it is important to hear from the Minister whether he envisages the arrangement recommended by the BHB, which is fairly widely accepted and close to the views expressed by the Racecourse Association, being in the scheme.