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DCMS disputes Tories' Lottery funding claims

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 7 Apr 2009

The Departure for Culture Media and Sport has hit back at Conservative Party accusations that the National Lottery Commission is “bloated” and has halved funding to good causes, claiming the assertions are “simply untrue”.

Figures revealed by shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt (pictured) showed funding for sports, arts and heritage in particular had more than halved since 1997. Meanwhile, salaries paid to National Lottery Commission staff increased by nearly two-fold (94 per cent).

Hunt asked: “Why on earth has the Lottery regulator allowed its costs to become so bloated when Lottery good causes are desperate for every penny they can get?”

The figures showed that while the average salary of Lottery workers increased from £36,945 in 1999 to £60,779 in 2008, funding of the arts dropped by 47 per cent to £214.5m from 1997 to 2008. Sport funding fell 53 per cent to £217.04m as did funding of heritage organisations, also now at £217.04m, over the same period.

“Misleading” figures

A DCMS spokeswoman told Charity News Alert that the figures requested by Hunt were inflation-adjusted and did not reflect the reality of Lottery funding to good causes.

Following a request by Charity News Alert the DCMS revealed the non-inflation adjusted figures for lottery funding. The department's own figures showed a drop from £1.95bn in 1997/1998 to £1.302bn in 2007/2008 - a fall of about a third.

"The figures are misleading. Lottery funding to good causes did not fall by the amounts suggested. The figures are inflation adjusted comparisons derived from the actual amounts which were significantly lower. This also ignores the fact that the price of the main Lottery draw ticket has remained at £1," said the spokeswoman.

“Of course, the amount raised for Lottery good causes is subject to fluctuations from year to year but our records show a far less exaggerated decline.”

Funding to good causes increased slightly over 2007/2008 following a 13.7 per cent decline in the previous financial year. Significant drops were also recorded over the financial years covering 2002 - 2004.

Erroneous Olympic figures

The DCMS said that Hunt had also erroneously included figures related to 2012 Olympic funding and administration into the category of administration, which he reported had risen by 131 per cent since 1999. DCMS's figures show Olympic funding to be £151m in 2007/2008, up from £116m in the year previous.

“From the outset, the Government has always been clear that the National Lottery would contribute to the funding of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. We have agreed, and capped, the levels of lottery investment, and have arranged for the National Lottery to share in the profits made from land sales after the Games,” she added.

Hunt, however, suggested that the Commission was failing in its role. “The Lottery was set up partly to help charitable organisations get through tough times so the regulator has a special responsibility to keep their costs under control,” said the minister.

The DCMS responded to Hunt’s claims, asserting that: “Good causes benefit from Lottery funding 365 days of the year. To suggest anything else is simply untrue. In fact, Lottery distributors have already awarded over £160m to nearly 4,000 non-Olympic good cause projects this year.”

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