Summary
3.The Act provides for those elements of the Government’s reforms on the licensing and regulation of the National Lottery and for the way National Lottery money is distributed to good causes, set out in the National Lottery Licensing and Regulation, and National Lottery Funding Decision Documents, both published on 3 July 2003, that require primary legislation.
4.The main provisions of the Act are as follows:
The setting up of a new distributor, the Big Lottery Fund, to take on the functions of the National Lottery Charities Board (also known as the Community Fund), the New Opportunities Fund and the Millennium Commission.
The establishment of a new good cause to reflect the functions of the Big Lottery Fund.
To enable the Big Lottery Fund to handle non-Lottery funds.
To enable the Big Lottery Fund to provide advice on all distribution matters.
To enable the Big Lottery Fund to make grants in the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
To confer on the Secretary of State and the devolved administrations* a power to give directions to the Big Lottery Fund as to the exercise of its functions.
*Devolved administrations means Scottish Ministers, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure.
To enable all Lottery distributors to consult and to take into account of the views of members of the public in making distribution decisions.
To enable Lottery distributors to participate in publishing information about the work of all Lottery distributors.
To require all Lottery distributors to include, in their annual reports, their policy and practice in relation to how they have dealt with the principle that Lottery funding should not be allowed to become a substitute for funding that would normally fall to mainstream Government spending.
To reform the current provisions for the allocation of interest arising from the investment of undistributed funds held in the National Lottery Distribution Fund and to confer on the Secretary of State the power by order to reallocate amounts held for particular distributors in the National Lottery Distribution Fund.
Miscellaneous provisions including the abolition of the Community Fund, the New Opportunities Fund and the winding up of the Millennium Commission.
To confer on the Secretary of State a power to bring into effect at a later stage provisions amending the licensing structure of the National Lottery.
To amend the constitutional provisions relating to the National Lottery Commission.