Clause 3 - Licensees
National Lottery Bill
12:00 pm
Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)
I rise to try to persuade the Minister to explain precisely why clause 3 is before us. It changes the description of whoever might receive the new licence to run the national lottery when the current licence expires. As we know, there will be a competition and the Government’s desire, which I and my colleagues share, is that it will be a single licence, although there will be a reserve power to break it up. We expect that one entity will win the new licence, whether it is Camelot or a replacement.
The clause changes references to “body corporate” to “person” because the recipient of the licence could be a person. I suspect that the Minister will say that that is to enable the choice of operators to be widened to allow an individual or person to come forward for the great honour of running the lottery. However, it would be helpful if the Minister could give us at least a short explanation of why there should be a change in the wording.