HC Deb 27 March 2000 vol 347 cc5-7
4. Mr. David Watts (St. Helens, North)

What action he is taking to ensure that former coalfield areas benefit from the national lottery. [114854]

The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Mr. Chris Smith)

The Government are committed to ensuring that all areas, and especially those in which there are high levels of economic and social deprivation, benefit from lottery funding. My Department and the distributors have therefore jointly commissioned research into the impact of the national lottery on former coalfield areas. The results, which are due shortly, are likely to shed further light on the situation and to suggest recommendations for improving it.

Mr. Watts

I thank my right hon. Friend for that reply, but is he aware that many poor communities lack the expertise to put in an initial bid; and will he consider providing resources for such communities, so that they can prepare good-quality bids?

Mr. Smith

I take my hon. Friend's point absolutely. We have already put in place several measures to help by changing the way in which lottery money is distributed. We have issued an instruction to the distributors that they must pay particular attention to areas of social deprivation, and enabled them, through the National Lottery Act 1998, to solicit applications and delegate decisions. We have encouraged the introduction of the small grants scheme, and the distributors now have schemes and programmes—such as Sport England's sport action zones policy—that target funding on areas of particular need.

In addition, my hon. Friend's point is being taken on board through the introduction of a two-stage process in the lottery decision-making procedures, so that an applicant can submit an initial in principle application, get a steer from the distributing body on whether it is likely to attract support, and then embark on the task of working it up further, if it is indeed likely to be accepted in due course.

Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)

Is it not possible that former coalfield areas have suffered from a lack of lottery proceeds as a direct consequence of the fact that the Secretary of State's constituency, Islington, South and Finsbury, as of 3 March this year, was the seventh largest recipient of lottery funds? Does he intend speedily to address the problem, for fear that if he does not, the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner) will jump out of his pram?

Mr. Smith

I am pleased to be able to tell the hon. Gentleman that his constituency has received £8.8 million from the national lottery, which is just below the national average—it has not done especially badly. There has been variation across the country, which is a matter of concern. It is of particular concern in the coalfield areas, which is precisely why we have embarked on detailed research to establish why applications have not been coming in from those areas. That is what we want to rectify.

Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)

Does my right hon. Friend recall that, when the lottery was set up and the Tories were in power, my right hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr. Benn), my hon. Friend the Member for North-East Derbyshire (Mr. Barnes) and I asked questions on behalf of the Derbyshire coalfield, because the Tories were so embittered by our politics that they put the lottery applications from our constituencies down among the lowest 10 per cent? In the past few months, we have managed to get a few bob back: not yet as much as has been spent on the millennium dome, but we expect to get that much. I do not expect the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) to know about that, because at the time I was raising those questions, little Noddy was still in his pram.

Mr. Smith

It is always a pleasure to be able to agree with my hon. Friend. He has rightly identified that we are making progress on that issue. He has also rightly identified that when the lottery was first established it was an application-driven process, with no strategy or provision—as we now have in the directions that are in place for the lottery distributors—for particular attention to be paid to the needs of areas of deprivation. Those factors are now in place and the lottery is working better as a result. I am pleased that my hon. Friend's constituency is now beginning to benefit.