QUIETLY and without publicity, arrangements are being finalised for the disbursement of Lottery cash in Scotland which are quite inconsistent with the general expectations on devolution.
The Lottery is big business. The original forecast for the UK in 1994 was #9 billion over the seven-year licence, later revised to #10 billion: on a pro rata basis this might approach #1 billion in Scotland.
The White Paper, Scotland's Parliament, stated that while the Lottery itself would be a reserved function, the Scottish Executive would have powers to issue policy and financial directions to National Lottery distributors in Scotland. This sounds reassuring - until one checks with the actual text of the draft Executive Devolution Order.
Current proposals are, in fact, for the Scottish Executive to have powers to influence the two National Lottery distributors which are based in Scotland, namely the Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Sports Council. However, the Scottish Executive will have no powers over the other four Lottery distributors, namely, the New Opportunities Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund, the National Lottery Charities Board, and the Millennium Commission.
In other words, for approximately two-thirds of the Lottery cash distributed in Scotland, the Scottish Parliament will have no power to influence priorities between projects, or to call the distributors to account for their decisions. Nor will the Scottish Parliament have any power at all to shift Lottery funds between the six Good Causes: not even between the Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Sports Council.
The non-existent powers of the Scottish Parliament are particularly regrettable as regards the New Opportunities Fund, since this is designed to complement the core current funding provided by the State in areas such as health, education, technology, and the environment, which are of course devolved. There is a real danger that provision of complementary funding via another agency with no Scottish accountability will distort spending priorities. This is a criticism which is currently made of Lottery funding for capital projects.
We understand that these arrangements are not yet quite set in stone. What is required now is for Donald Dewar to explain publicly why Labour is setting up arrangements which are apparently so inconsistent with the stated principles of devolution: and for there to be a vigorous debate before the current proposals are quietly nodded through.
Jim Cuthbert,
Margaret Cuthbert,
42 Cluny Drive, Edinburgh.
June 2.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article