§ Lady HermonTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the total spending on the National Lottery was in each Northern Ireland constituency in each of the past five years; and what proportion of this money was allocated to good causes in Northern Ireland. [142678]
§ Estelle MorrisInformation on total National Lottery sales is not available by constituency. The available information about National Lottery sales by postcode area is set out in a table placed in the Library, in response to a question from the hon. Member for Edinburgh, West (John Barrett).
The information needs to be interpreted with care, since it is dependent on a number of factors, including the Post Office's updating of postcode information on a quarterly basis. The table shows total sales since the lottery started, including year to date sales up to the end of September 2003. The data has been extracted from Camelot's sales database and will not directly reconcile to Camelot's financial reporting.
It is worth noting that the funds that the National Lottery generates for the good causes are shared between 15 distributing bodies—some of which are UK-wide, while others operate only in one of the four home counties—in fixed proportions. There is no necessary correlation between the way in which the proceeds are divided between the 15 distributing bodies, or the way in which grants are allocated by each of the distributors, and the level of ticket sales generated in particular areas. The address of a lottery grant recipient is not necessarily a reliable guide to the area or region which is benefiting from the expenditure (for example, London-based organisations often receive lottery grants but spend the money elsewhere).
Information on the value of grants awarded is not available as a proportion of sales. The following table shows the amount of money awarded to good causes in Northern Ireland in each of the past five calendar years. This is derived from the Department's Awards Database, which is based on information supplied by the distributing bodies.
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Amount of money awarded to good causes in Northern Ireland in each of the past five calendar years
£Amount 1998–99 42,069,683 1999–2000 66,137,769 2000–01 32,330,494 2001–02 56,012,802 2002–03 42,560,640