HC Deb 25 February 1997 vol 291 cc145-6W
Mr. David Nicholson

To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will publish(a) the names of those (i) groups and (ii) individuals who advise the national lottery and each of its distributing bodies about applications and (b) their duties and terms of reference. [16537]

Mr. Sproat

The national lottery distributors consult a wide range of organisations. The main ones are: Adapt Trust, all national governing bodies of sport including the British Olympic Association, area museum councils, Cadw, Central Council for Physical Recreation, Countryside Council for Wales, Disability Action, Disability Scotland, Disability Wales, English Heritage, English Nature, PRISM fund for preservation and restoration of industrial and scientific material, local authorities, local sports councils, London Video Film Development Agency, Museums and Galleries Commission, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales, Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service—Natural Heritage, Northern Ireland Film Council, Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service—Built Heritage, regional arts boards, Royal Fine Art Commission for Scotland, Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Royal Fine Art Commission, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Film Production Fund, British Film Institute, Crafts Council, British Library, Countryside Commission, Theatres Trust, Victoria and Albert Museum/Museums and Galleries Commission purchase grant fund and wildlife trusts.

The National Lottery Charities Board has a series of regional advisory panels drawn from the voluntary sector for their local knowledge. The board also uses expert advisors on their medical and social research panels, and international grants programme panel.

In addition, the distributing bodies seeks advice from a very large number of individuals or specialist firms and organisations in assessing projects or groups of projects. It would not be practical to identify and list all those, as 12,446 awards have now been made.

It is for the distributing bodies to determine the duties and the terms of reference for each particular organisation or individual concerned and these will vary accordingly to the nature of the work required.