Dr. John CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many organisations have been awarded funds from the national lottery five good causes; what is the total amount in pounds; and how much of the money in percentage terms from each of the five good causes has not yet been paid out to these organisations. [3278]
§ Mrs. Virginia BottomleyThe rate at which funds flow to successful schemes is determined by the time it takes to conclude award negotiations and the requirements to make staged payments. It is less than 18 months since the awards process began.
When a lottery award announcement is made, it is not necessarily to a project which is ready to begin immediately. This is likely to be true of only a few well planned and/or relatively straightforward projects. In most cases, further negotiation will be necessary. An award announcement should, therefore, be looked at more as an award in principle—as is the case with private finance initiative schemes—where it is accepted that some work still needs to be done before the project can get off the ground. Based on advice, the typical time gaps between award and spending on a project can be between nine and 15 months for major construction schemes and three and six months for smaller schemes.
The lottery distributors have identified the main reasons for such time lags. These are:
Locating partnership funding. A common approach is to apply for lottery funding first and then confirm partnership funding contributions. Most distributors wish to pay out lottery money
Good cause sector Number of awards Total value of awards £million Total grant payments to date £ million Percentage of total value of grants awarded but not yet paid out Percentage of awardees in receipt of first payments Sport 2,217 372.8 80.8 78 53 Arts 1,704 636 106.4 83 63 Charities 4,757 318.4 74.3 77 73 Heritage 532 326.2 70.9 78 35 Millennium 77 760.1 14.6 98 29 Total 9,287 2,413.5 347 86 64