New Clause 1 - GUIDANCE TO DISTRIBUTING BODIES
National Lottery Bill
9:30 am
Don Foster (Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, Culture, Media & Sport; Bath, Liberal Democrat)
What might be in the mind of the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner) is that, if the Government start interfering in such projects and not do it well, there will be additional anxiety about the breach of additionality. He was not so robust in his criticism of the scheme as he might have been. It is interesting that 90 per cent. of the pears and 50 per cent. of the apples used in the project come from overseas suppliers. The hon. Gentleman could have gone further and said that the fruit used in those schemes has 25 per cent. more pesticides in them than fruit that is bought in local supermarkets.
However, lest it be thought that the hon. Gentleman was straying too far from the issue, let me return to what I was saying. I was using the creation of the New Opportunities Fund as an example of what was perceived by many people as a breach of the principle of additionality.Let me give another example of why there is real cause for concern. Much to the surprise of the Minister, I said the other day in Committee that I had deep worries about how the DCMS annual report blurred the distinction between Government funding and lottery funding. The right hon. Gentleman told me that I should not be bothered about that. I place on record that the most recent DCMS report makes a better fist of separating the two than was the case in the preceding years. However, unfortunately, the Department continues to confuse the issue. I will give an example from an area that is dear to the Minister’s heart; sport. I looked at what the DCMS’s website said about sport. It states that the Secretary of State wants to start
“a 20 year process of re-establishing this country as a powerhouse in the sporting world”.
We would all welcome that and agree with the Secretary of State, not least because we suspect that the words were actually written by the Minister. However, the same website goes on to talk about how that will be achieved and states:
“To achieve this aim, the Government is investing £2 billion of public and National Lottery money in sport by 2006”.
So, the Government are investing national lottery money in sport. What clearer example could there be of Government interference in lottery funding?