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From
the March 2001 Issue Contents:
Report
Set to Rock Lottery World
An
influential House of Commons committee is set to recommend that the
Lottery should be nationalised. Barbara Bloomfield reports. Having
seen the way that state Lotteries operate in America, the Department of
Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is likely to recommend this
week that a state run system be adopted here. Committee
member, Claire Ward, MP told Lottery Monitor she could not comment until
the report was published. However, she confirmed that the committee had
been most impressed by the American system which operates in 37 states.
The report will also call for greater openness on the part of the
National Lottery Commission. Questioning
the Culture Secretary last month, Derek Wyatt MP, said: “It seems to
me that is now the only solution left. If you want the best product, the
Government should own it and run it and break up the bits.” Mr.
Smith replied that he would “remain agnostic” on the subject,
adding: “It has been said to me by quite a number of people now that
an option could be to see a Lottery that is effectively owned by the
nation through the Government, but that each service for the running of
that Lottery is contracted out to different suppliers. That is obviously
a model which works in some other parts of the world.” The
matter would be considered as part of wider review of the licensing
process. But Mr. Smith repeated that the Dome appeared to give
ammunition to those who said it was not the business of government to
run such enterprises. He also felt the current system enables individual
MPs who have a particular project that they wish to support to do so. “It
enables them to argue vigorously on behalf of their constituents. It
means, though, that they cannot say, ‘I have a direct line to the
Minister and therefore I know I can get this project approved.’ It
does mean that the project will be assessed on impartial criteria.” The
Committee is also keen to see ‘more openness’ in the workings and
meetings of the National Lottery Commission. They would like to see a
livelier range of Lottery tickets available, with special Christmas
packs, gift tags and special deals, or specially printed tickets aimed
at groups like footballers or individual charities. The
Committee’s report, due this week, could be influential. Its Chairman,
Gerald Kaufman, engineered a sea-change in attitudes to the Lottery when
a previous report heavily criticised the awarding of many millions to
the Royal Opera House.
News
In Brief
Culture
Secretary, Chris Smith, became the first person to log onto www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
opening a virtual door and hotline to all the Good Causes.
The
Scottish Arts Council (SAC) is to spend a total of £54.9m on the arts
in Scotland in the next financial year - an increase of £4.4m on last
year.
In
its biggest single roll-out of grants to children’s out of school
hours activities projects to date, the New Opportunities Fund has
announced awards totalling £24 million throughout the UK in funding
awards for 393 childcare and learning projects.
Rural communities across Scotland will have access to a £10m fund to help them purchase, develop or manage their local land. The Scottish Land Fund has been established to help Scotland’s rural communities take greater control of their futures. It will award grants to local communities to buy large and small areas of land and use it in a sustainable way, creating social, economic and environmental benefits for the whole community. Features
The
Countryside Agency has been given a new role to make
The
emphasis on deprivation may result in reduced effectiveness, argues Nick
Evelegh from Kent.
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