National Lottery (Hansard, 10 January 1995)

§ Mr. John Evans
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will ensure that all the interest earned on money already collected by the National Lottery Charity Board for distribution to charities and voluntary organisations will he made available to those organisations.

§ Mr. Dorrell
Yes. The National Lottery etc. Act 1993 provides that interest earned on the proceeds of the national lottery is added to the national lottery distribution fund and attributed to each distributing body on a proportionate basis.

§ Mr. Alton
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if interest earned on money already collected by the national lottery for distribution to charities and voluntary organisations will accrue to Camelot.

§ Mr. Dorrell
Interest earned on the proceeds of the national lottery will not accrue to Camelot. It is added to the national lottery distribution fund and attributed to each distributing body on an equitable basis.

§ Mr. Alton
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will consider the abandonment of national lottery rollover prizes above £1 million or, when prizes have not been won, distributing the money to charities through a further draw from a list of registered charities.

§ Mr. Dorrell
The rollover of unwon jackpot prizes is a significant factor in maintaining public interest and participation in lotteries around the world. The Government believe that limiting rollover in the UK to a maximum of three consecutive times will balance the aim of maintaining interest in the lottery with the need to put an upper ceiling on jackpot prizes. Returns to good causes would suffer if interest in playing the national lottery generated by jackpot prizes were to decline.

§ Mr. Tipping
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what steps he is taking to ensure the national lottery prize winners can remain anonymous if that is their wish.

§ Mr. Dorrell
[holding answer 15 December 1994]: Under section 11 of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993, the director-general of the national lottery has been directed to include in the licence to run the national lottery a condition that the identity of any person who has won a prize in any constituent game will not be disclosed by the licensee without the written consent of that person. 69W Recent disclosures are being considered both by the director-general and the Press Complaints Commission.