Lottery shake-up plan criticised

Ministers tried to introduce the changes in the last Parliament

Planned changes to the National Lottery will see cash diverted from areas like sport and the arts to "cover up gaps" in education and health, Tories say.

Culture Minister Richard Caborn said, ahead of a Commons debate, that the proposals enjoyed popular support.

Mr Caborn says 70% of cash raised will go to voluntary and community sectors.

Theresa May, for the Conservatives, accused the government of "sticking its hands in the pocket of the lottery" to pay for things taxes should fund.

Independent?

"Frankly, what I think is happening is the government is moving away from the original aims of the lottery to give money to good causes, heritage, arts and sport," she said.

She added that the "whole aim" of the lottery was for it to be independent of government but that was, she claimed, changing by stealth with ministers exerting more and more influence over how cash should be spent.

The government says the National Lottery Bill aims to streamline the process for applying to get lottery cash by establishing the Big Lottery fund. It also gives the public more say in lottery distribution decisions.

But Stephen Bubb, who heads an umbrella group for chief executives of voluntary organisations, said increasing proportions of lottery cash in recent years had gone on health and education programmes.

Transforming communities?

An example of this was money spent on improving school meals following a campaign by TV chef Jamie Oliver.

"Good cause money mustn't be there to plug gaps in departmental budgets at the expense of charities," said Mr Bubb.

Lib Dem culture spokesman Don Foster accused the government of threatening to undermine the independence of lottery funds.

"The lottery has helped transform communities with £17bn of investment since 1994," he said.

"But Labour's increasing control, such as these proposals for government powers to redistribute funds for good causes, exposes the lottery to accusations of being a 'stealth tax'."

Public support?

Mr Caborn was asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme who had decided £45m would come out of lottery funds to pay for school dinners - to which he conceded a "major direction" had come from the government.

But he insisted that under the proposed changes, such decisions would be made by the Big Lottery Fund.

"We are responding exactly to what the public wants," he said, adding that people wanted cash to go on priorities like health and education.

The Big Lottery Fund is being created by merging the Community Fund, New Opportunities Fund and the Millennium Commission and Mr Caborn said efficiencies would boost cash to good causes.

"Streamlining will mean more going to frontline services and organisations that there would have been," he said.

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This debate is now closed. Thank you for your comments.

Your comments:

Here we go again. It started with Churchill "absorbing" the road tax into the general tax fund - this is worse because it isn't the government's money. And what can we do about it? Nothing except stop buying lottery tickets - but for many of us that is the only affordable way of having a future to dream about!
Pat French, Shropshire, UK

I have refused to buy lottery tickets for sometime now, purely because I already pay enough tax and do not appreciate the government hijacking the lottery. Once again a "consultation" is announced saying that people want these changes. Who on earth has been consulted? What was asked? What were the results? The lottery is doomed if the government continue to consider it is their cash cow.
L Kelly, Locksheath , England

I think the Lottery lost its way when the government failed to allow non profit organisations to run it. It's been one embarrassment after another since then with lottery funds going to plainly silly and needless causes, overshadowing all the good work I'm sure it is otherwise doing.
Tony, London

Since the lottery is taxed the Government are having two bites at the cherry - basic Government policies should be funded properly not paid for via the backdoor
Phil, Bolton, UK

"We are responding exactly to what the public wants". Really, when did you ask us all then Mr Caborn?
A Sweeting, Leicester, UK

This is disgraceful. When the government said it was increasing funding for school dinners, they should have paid for it out of their own budgets, not dipping into the lottery fund at the expense of other good causes.
Alex, London, UK

Our heritage will suffer more than it is already if these changes happen Naomi A, Newcastle, UK

Heritage is not high on the government agenda and will never get lots of government funds, the best we can expect is lottery funds - our heritage will suffer more than it is already if these changes happen. Why should lottery money be used to fund elements of society our taxes should be going towards?
Naomi A, Newcastle, UK

Once upon a time there was a tax imposed on road vehicle users called the Road Fund Licence. This was designed to pay for new roads and the repair of existing ones. The words "Road and "Fund" were dropped and it now supports half of government provided services! Government "streamlining" will mean that in less than three years more staff will be employed than are currently employed by the Community Fund, New Opportunities Fund and the Millennium Fund.
Robert Stevens, Birmingham England

It is almost inevitable that the (still) very large sums of money generated by the lottery will prove to much of an attraction to the political 'powers that be' No one should be allowed to forget the basis on which the Lottery was founded. 'Responding to what the public wants' is not a proper reason for changing the original rules
Andrew Logan, Exeter

I do find the phrase "We are responding exactly to what the public wants" somewhat deluding, yes people do want extra funding to go on health and education, but I'm sure not from money already earmarked for good causes. Education and Health should be funded through taxes and not supplemented through failure to control budgets effectively. Perhaps the National lottery would like to give their profits to fund Health and Education!?
Neil, Liverpool

Government should only use lottery money IF they are prepared to reduce our taxes - otherwise they should leave it as it is
Heather Webber, Yate UK

If the lottery money went into Schools and Hospitals, then I might play the lottery again. I stopped playing the lottery as I got fed up with Lottery money going towards pointless projects. I don't see a problem with the funding going to help the nation in this way.
Paul, Worthing, UK

Plugging "gaps" only serves to highlight further the inability of this government to correctly assign the considerable monies it takes through high taxation. It is simple: taxes should raise funds for services such as education and health, so that woefully under funded areas such as culture and sport should be served by the Lottery. It makes me chortle to think we are aiming for an Olympic bid in a country which wants to further starve public funding for sport and art.
Marcus Dubois, Kingston, Surrey

I thought the whole point of the lottery money was to fund good causes that would never get money from government because they were too small or would not justify public funds being spent on it. Just because the public say they want to see more money spent on health and education, this does not give the government a licence to balance their books by deliberately under funding programmes and relying on the lottery to plug the gap. State functions should be State funded. Lottery money should go to private institutions. It is as simple as that.
David Comyns, London, United Kingdom

The Big Lottery Fund is increasingly being asked to fund projects that the government should be paying for. This means less money goes to the small charity groups that the public never hears about. If you ask the public where they want lottery cash to go they will always say health because they are ignorant of the thousands of charities that operate throughout the country doing valuable work.
John, Birmingham

This is not the government's money to spend on things they should be funding anyway. It's outrageous, people should boycott the whole thing as a protest.
Nick, UK

Lottery money should not pay for the things taxes should be funding Gareth Bruce, Leamington Spa, UK

Seems a little dubious. Is lottery money sustainable? I know I don't play every week. The lottery will become a tax of choice, you can choose to pay or not to pay, with an incentive of winnings. Maybe all tax could run likewise. You could choose not to pay income tax one month but forfeit the chance to win a billion pounds! Lottery money should not pay for the things taxes should be funding. Raising the basic rate of income tax for the wealthy is the best way.
Gareth Bruce, Leamington Spa, UK

If the Government want to take a slice of the money they will find that the lottery playing public will not be so keen to participate and their will be less funds to go round. The proceeds from the lottery should be solely for charities.
Graham Lucas, Westcliff-on-Sea

Whatever lottery money is spent on the most important thing is that it is not wasted! If it was used to buy new scanners for hospitals, say, most people would think that a better use than another new museum!
G.D. Jarvis, Hornchurch, Essex

What's new? In my view, the lottery has always been a cunning tax on those who can least afford to pay. We shouldn't be surprised that another Tory idea has been embraced by 'New' Labour to avoid the only logical solution to funding greater public spending - introducing a new higher rate of income tax.
Matthew, Wilts

Tax receipts are going down due to slight stagnation in the economy so use of the Lottery is the logical easy option for quick fix revenue, before the next tax rises. Bending the original intentions of what the Lottery should fund outlines more first inklings of the shortage of cash versus the massive public sector cost. Perhaps it would be more correct to cut costs, cut bureaucracy and also cut the menace that is increasingly facing the wealth generating private sector that has to match public sector salaries in some areas.
Steven Coleridge, Birmingham, England

The public would not mind if lottery cash went into the health service, how many extra nurses or beds could one month's 'good causes' money pay for? Even new hospitals or departments could be funded by just a few months of money.
Denis Chadwick, Rochdale England

The Government should not be getting its hands on the lottery funds to divert into the causes that they have so far failed to budget adequately on. This makes the lottery in effect worse than a stealth tax as we are voluntarily giving our money away to the government without any guarantees where or how they will spend it. This should be stopped immediately.
Keith, Edinburgh, Scotland

About time too David Richards, Gloucester, UK

About time too! I'm fed up of money going to crackpot so called art project and to sport which is wealthy enough as it is.
David Richards, Gloucester, UK

Mr. Caborn, the government minister, makes statements such as "this is what the people want". This person actually wants the Government to leave the Lottery money alone and not use it to fill cracks in Government expenditure; this person wants the Government to spend the taxpayers' money wisely which, in my view, it does not seem to be doing at the moment. Did Camelot receive the lottery over Virgin because it would be more compliant when passing money to the Government for them to spend like Victorian benefactors.
S. Lloyd, London

It all depends on your interpretation of a good cause, children's health and education come under the umbrella of good causes in my book.
Richard Green, Preston, Lancashire

The whole lottery concept should be debated. Safeguards should inserted in the conditions of the licence to limit the autocratic manner in which the lottery is conducted; the primary aim appears to be the profit for Camelot, there should be a public oversight of and a public checking presence at all draws. Changing the conditions of the licence so that all is transparently above board could allow the lottery to continue on its original course, getting bigger & bigger, not fading away.
James Lancaster, Leamington Spa, England

So there we have it... The government can resist the temptation to raid another lucrative pot no longer.

I always wondered how long it would be before the Lottery became another tax for the British!
Wayne, Melbourne, Australia

It's outrageous that when something set up to fund Sports and Arts projects is going to be used to cover items that taxation has always, and should still cover. I manage an English national sports squad, and have to battle (usually unsuccessfully) for any funds to try to cover both senior and junior teams. I have just returned from London (at my own expense) where I was trying to get SportAid assistance to juniors good enough to compete in world competition, but whose families struggle to pay the cost of kit, training, travel etc.

If you could see these kids, who give up huge chunks of their youth to work and train, some every night of the week, to get into national squads. The pride in their faces as they pull on an England shirt. And do they get any help? Very often the answer is no. The lottery was one of the few avenues through which money came into sport.
Paul McDermott, Merseyside, England

Overall there should be no problem with the government transferring unclaimed funds, however there should be concern that the treasury sees fit not to be able to balance its books from the taxes earned from the voting public.
Hamish Tennant, Glasgow, Scotland