National Lottery (Hansard, 20 December 1994)

§ Mr. Kilfoyle
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage (1) whether he will issue a direction to the Director General of the National Lottery with the aim of forbidding the withholding of prize money in the national lottery from one week's competition to add artificially to jackpots in one or more subsequent competitions, other than as part of an authorised roll-over arrangement;
(2) what advice he has received from the Director General of the National Lottery about the withholding of national lottery prize money by Camelot in order to boost jackpots in subsequent competitions other than as part of an authorised roll-over arrangement;
(3) whether it his Department's policy to encourage the Office of the National Lottery to permit the withholding of national lottery prize money by Camelot in order to boost jackpots in subsequent competitions other than as part of an authorised roll-over arrangement.

§ Mr. Dorrell
Prize money in the national lottery cannot be manipulated from week to week. I have asked Peter Davis, the Director General of the National Lottery, to write to the hon. Member about this matter, placing copies of his letter in the Library of the House.

§ Mr. Kilfoyle
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will bring forward proposals to prohibit the BBC from promoting and advertising the national lottery.

§ Mr. Dorrell
No. Such proposals are not necessary. Under the terms of its licence and agreement, the BBC may not without my approval receive payment for broadcasting advertising or promotional material, and no such approval has been sought or given.

§ Mr. Kilfoyle
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what advice he has received about the legality of BBC television programmes promoting the national lottery.
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§ Mr. Dorrell
I have been advised that the legality of the BBC's operations is primarily a matter for the BBC's governors.

§ Mr. Kilfoyle
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage under what section of the BBC's charter the corporation is permitted to promote the national lottery.

§ Mr. Dorrell
Under clause 3 of its charter, the BBC can make and broadcast programmes, including programmes covering events such as the national lottery draw. Detailed rules on the content and presentation of such programmes are set out in the BBC's producers' guidelines.

§ Mr. Kilfoyle
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what steps he has taken to satisfy himself that the content, style and promotion of the national lottery programme shown on BBC television on Saturday night conforms with the BBC's charter.

§ Mr. Dorrell
None. The primary responsibility for ensuring that individual programmes conform with the BBC's royal charter rests with the BBC's governors.

§ Mr. Trend
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage whether Ministers of the Crown will support individual project applications for grants from the national lottery; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Dorrell
Distribution of the net proceeds of the national lottery is the responsibility of the distributing bodies named under section 23 of the National Lottery etc. Act 1993, as amended by statutory instrument 1994 No. 1342. The decisions that these bodies take will be independent of Government. The Government's main function in the distribution process is to issue directions under section 26 of the Act, covering the financial management of lottery funds and matters which distributors must take into account when making funding decisions.
Lottery applications, except those made to the National Lottery Charities Board, are expected to attract a significant element of partnership funding from the voluntary or private sector, from local authorities or, exceptionally, from grant in aid. Within their normal departmental responsibilities, Ministers and their Departments may be involved in the process of approving aspects of a project, or in agreeing the contribution which a body receiving grant in aid might wish to make to a fully worked-up project. In cases where the costs of a project exceed a public body's delegated limits, the entire project will need ministerial approval. Ministers and their Departments may also encourage a wide range of projects to be put forward to the distributing bodies. However, they will not endorse any individual application to any national lottery distributing body, nor will they explicitly state that any applications should be given priority by the distributing body over other applications. Where there is any grant in aid partnership funding, that will not in itself result in that project receiving special priority when it is considered by a distributing body for lottery funds.
Ministers may. of course, support local projects from within their constituencies in their capacity as Members of this House.