Clause 8 - Reallocation of funds
National Lottery Bill
2:15 pm
Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
If I may, I will digress first—with your permission, Mr. Gale. We have had exactly the same problem with structural funds from the European Union. The EU has recently started to withdraw money if draw-down does not take place. The provision that we are discussing is nothing like as draconian as that. It is a last resort, but at least it will bring some discipline to the system.
Already, the Heritage Lottery Fund has in 12 months reduced its balances by a further 17 per cent. That is welcome, and if that trend continues there will be no need to use the powers. If we had to use them, it would be after wide consultation, and with no detriment to the schemes being funded nor to the allocation of those funds. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, South that that is a commitment. The only difference will be that it could well be—I hope not—that another body would dispense the funds more efficiently than the body that allocated the money.