§ Lord Freybergasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether it would be an appropriate use of National Lottery endowment funds to use them to replace proposed entry charges to national museums.
§ Lord Inglewood:Applicants for National Lottery grants may apply for an endowment where such an application meets the eligibility criteria of the individual independent distributing bodies.
The National Heritage Bill, when enacted, will allow the trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, who administer the Heritage Lottery Fund, to provide financial assistance for projects aimed at securing, displaying or improving access to heritage items and encouraging enjoyment of them. It will therefore allow them to consider assisting projects which would secure reduced admission charges.
It will be for the trustees to exercise their discretion as to how they should use their new powers, taking into account the directions issued to them by the Secretary of State for National Heritage. These currently state that lottery funds may be distributed in the form of an endowment where such costs are associated with a lottery-funded capital project, and in such cases where the project would not otherwise be completed because no other finance for such costs is available.