New Clause 2 - DISTRIBUTING BODIES: CRITERIA FOR DISTRIBUTION
National Lottery Bill
1:45 pm
Jo Swinson (Shadow Minister, Culture, Media & Sport; East Dunbartonshire, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Gentleman has said that there is a degree of agreement on the Committee. Certainly, everybody would agree that the reputation of the national lottery must be preserved. It is important to the continued success of the national lottery, in particular, if people are to keep playing and maximise funding for good causes. In many ways, after reading the amendment, it is difficult to see how one might disagree with the statement that
“a body should have regard to maintaining the reputation of the National Lottery and the distributing bodies.”
Equally, however, I feel some unease with that, partly, for example, because it is not clear why it needs to be enshrined in legislation. Members of the bodies that are appointed must be fit and able to discharge their offices, so one would expect that, in acting professionally, they would in any case have regard to the reputation of the lottery and the body on which they serve.