Clause 8 - Reallocation of funds
National Lottery Bill
1:15 pm
Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman is right; I agree with every word that he has said. That is why we need to treat with caution the powers that the Secretary of State wishes to take on herself. At least, there is a need to include some additional counterbalance to what the Secretary of State might be thinking. When the reallocation of funds is mentioned in the Bill and the explanatory notes, there is no mention of the NAO, yet it has a great deal of expertise in this field, as demonstrated by its numerous reports on the matter—reports that are prayed in aid when making the decision to go ahead with the new powers given to the Secretary of State in the clause.
I am genuinely fearful that indiscriminate reallocation of funds would cause huge problems. There is no doubt that if that happened it is quite likely that a new distribution body would be set up. I have no doubt that if the Government were to do that, the body would have all the powers imposed on it that they are imposing on the Big Lottery Fund. In many cases—not always—a new body would have to be set up, and that could create a problem.
However, there is a further problem. If the money is to be transferred to a new distributing body, or just another one, there would be concern that some of the commitments already made by the old distributing body would not be carried forward. If the Minister does nothing else in responding to the amendment, will he give the following categorical assurance? If funds are to be transferred from one distributing body to another, all the undertakings and commitments given by the original distributing body should also be transferred to it.