Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

A very good morning to you, Mr. Cook, and to all members of the Committee. Just before Committee began, the hon. Member for East Devon (Mr. Swire) assured me that he has been waiting throughout the entirety of this Committee’s proceedings to hear the debate on this issue. I must say, I think that he is building it up rather more than it deserves, notwithstanding that the issue of additionality—that is what new clause 1 is about—is crucial. It is one of the issues that has caused a great deal of concern to many people ever since the introduction of the national lottery in 1993.

It is worth reflecting that, during the passage of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993, and when revisions were made to it in 1998, a number of attempts were made—unsuccessfully, sadly—to include issues relating to additionality in the Bill. The new clause takes a different approach. Recognising that there would be a possibility of failure if I merely repeated what was done back in 1993 and 1998, I have taken a somewhat different tack. The new clause, rather than seeking to define additionality in the Bill, merely—I stress the word “merely” to the Minister—requires the Secretary of State to issue guidance on additionality. It also makes it clear that the guidance would be prepared by the Secretary of State only after extensive consultation and would be subject to approval by both Houses of Parliament. That would ensure that the definitions and guidance on additionality were not solely those of the Secretary of State. It is a new approach that would allow the issue to be revisited at appropriate times. That way, the definition of additionality could remain relevant, which is good because circumstances may change. However, it would also ensure that the principle was not eroded in future.

Additionality was one of the founding principles of the national lottery. The 1992 White Paper stated that the lottery would fund only projects additional to those that would otherwise be funded by the public through general taxation. The former Prime Minister, John Major, said in 1994, the year of the very first lottery grant, that:

“we will make no case on case reductions on conventional public spending programmes to take account of awards from the Lottery. The money raised by the Lottery will not replace public expenditure.”

Unfortunately, the present Government have repeatedly broken that principle of additionality, despite the fact that the Prime Minister said in 1997:

“We don’t believe it would be right to use Lottery money to pay for things which are the government’s responsibilities”.

The former right hon. Member for Islington, South and Finsbury, then the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, also spoke of the importance of additionality:

“The principle is clear. Lottery money must not replace Exchequer spending”.—[Official Report, 7 April 1998; Vol. 310, c. 166.]

Many members of the Committee will have their own concerns—as, no doubt, will you, Mr. Cook—about areas of potential or actual Government interference in the lottery with respect to breaches of that principle of additionality. Certainly, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee that looked into the matter expressed concerns. It said:

“The Committee has concerns that funding from the National Lottery has meant that there has been an erosion, in real terms, of the DCMS core funding.”

Crucially, it went on to say:

“We believe that the additionality principle is being eroded”.

That report, from the 2003-04 Session, went on:

“This Committee deplores this erosion. Therefore, we shall consider returning to the additionality principle before the end of this Parliament. In the meantime, we call on the Secretary of State to make an annual report to Parliament on how the additionality principle has been applied.”

It is clear that there are concerns about that; there are also concerns that the principle of additionality is being eroded and that we do not have a clear definition of what we mean about it anyway. We need frequent opportunities in the future to consider whether, once defined, the principle of additionality has been eroded. The new clause provides an opportunity to solve all those problems in a nice and gentle way that should be acceptable to the Minister. I look forward to his response.

The matter is important. We know, for example, from a YouGov poll a couple of years ago that three quarters of the population believe that it is vital that lottery funds remain free from Whitehall interference. Yet, they have not been. The creation of the New Opportunities Fund was a classic example—although, sadly, not the only one—of Government interference in the lottery. Since the fund was established in 1998, £3 billion has been awarded to education, environmental and health projects, including the purchase of MRI scanners and the proposal to give a piece of fruit each day to children between the ages of four and six. All the projects are worthy in their own right, but there is a real question whether, by using lottery money to fund them, we are breaching the principle of additionality.

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