By Lord Faulkner of Worcester - 28th November 2011
Lord Faulkner of Worcester argues that the introduction of the Health Lottery is negatively impacting the money raised by hospices.
I am concerned about the so-called 'Health Lottery', principally because of the damage it could do to the fundraising efforts of Britain's hospice movement. There are currently 118 local hospice lotteries (properly licensed as society lotteries) which provide weekly sustainable income to hospices all around the country. In my own city of Worcester the marvellous St Richard's and Acorns Children Hospices each receive between £70,000 and £75,000 a year from the South Worcestershire Hospices Lottery, on the basis of a 50p-in-the-pound payout.
The best the 'Health Lottery' offers is a payout of 20p in the pound to 'local health good causes'. The chances of any of that money finding its way to the Worcestershire hospices is minimal, bearing in mind that my county is in an administrative area defined by the 'Health Lottery' which also includes Herefordshire, Warwickshire and Coventry. This area, in turn, is one of 51 covered by 'community interest companies' around the country, which is promised one payout once a year. So far nothing has gone to hospices.
My second concern concerns the way that it is administered. The 51 'community interest companies' linked to The Health Lottery have no independent existence, all have the same three directors, and all have the same virtual office. That sort of arrangement is not what Parliament intended when it set up the National Lottery, and passed legislation to allow local society lotteries to operate, and I am amazed that the Gambling Commission has granted a licence to the 'Health Lottery'. I shall be asking the minister how that can have happened.
Richard Faulkneris a co-founder of <i>The House</i> magazine. He was raised to the peerage in 1999 and he sits on the Labour benches.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd