Clause 17
Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Tom Levitt (High Peak, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman will be aware that the Big Lottery Fund has always denied the Conservative party’s allegations of breaches of the additionality rules. However, there is an acceptance that a lot of Big Lottery Fund funding goes into partnerships that may involve statutory bodies, but that does not mean that the funding itself is not additional to that being provided through statutory measures. I believe that Conservative party policy would be to reduce that part of Big Lottery Fund funding which does not go directly into the so-called good causes—the charities. That would reduce by about 16 per cent. the money that it puts out. It would damage the partnership funding. I accept that on paper that may be a grey area, but does the hon. Gentleman not accept the undertakings and the assurances that the Big Lottery Fund has given that additionality is maintained in its actions?