News – Lords plug Lottery loophole

The House of Lords has passed an amendment to the National Lottery Bill, requiring bodies that distribute Lottery funds, including the Big Lottery Fund and the Arts Councils, to explain in their annual reports how they have used Lottery money to fund projects, or aspects of projects, for which funds would be unlikely to be made available by government.
The amendment, which has been the subject of intense lobbying by the National Campaign for the Arts, aims to boost the transparency and credibility of Lottery funding and provide a guarantee against Lottery money being used to plug gaps in government budgets.