Schedule 1 - National lottery licensing
National Lottery Bill
4:15 pm
Richard Caborn (Minister of State (Sport), Department for Culture, Media & Sport; Sheffield Central, Labour)
I shall try to explain. The hon. Gentleman has omitted to say that, before the changes we propose, the 1993 Act states:
''The Commission shall not grant such a licence unless it is satisfied that the applicant is a fit and proper body to promote lotteries under the licence.''
The Bill will delete ''body'' and insert ''person''. We had a debate this morning about the definition of ''person'', and I told the hon. Gentleman that I shall write to him because the legal interpretation of that term is not as clear to the layperson as we want. We shall go to the lawyers and get the proper interpretation of whether the term includes the corporate body as well as persons. We were informed that ''persons'' includes the corporate body.
Section 6(5) of the 1993 Act states:
''In determining whether to grant such a licence, the Commission may consider—
(a) whether any person who appears to it to be likely to manage the business or any part of the business of promoting lotteries under the licence is a fit and proper person to do so''.
That is clear in the sense that the term ''body'' has been deleted and ''person'' inserted. I shall give the explanation of ''persons'', as we discussed this morning. I do not see any conflict at all.