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Department for Culture Media and Sport

national lottery act

The idea of a National Lottery was first suggested in 1992 by the Home Office White Paper ‘A National Lottery Raising Money for Good Causes’.

The National Lottery Acts 1993 and 1998 established six good causes to benefit from the Lottery:

  • Sport
  • The arts
  • Heritage
  • Charities
  • Projects to mark the millennium
  • Innovative projects in health, education and environment (to be allocated by the New Opportunities Fund)

The 1998 Act also:

  • Changed the Lottery distributors' responsibility and powers and allowed them to produce strategic plans for funding
  • Allowed distributors to be more proactive by enabling them to solicit applications for Lottery grants
  • Allowed distributors to delegate grant decisions to other bodies
  • Allowed distributors to enter into jointly funded schemes with each other
  • Created the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA)

NESTA helps talented individuals in the fields of science, technology and the arts to achieve their potential. It also helps people turn inventions and ideas into products and services that can be effectively exploited.

The National Lottery Act 2006

  • Introduced the Big Lottery Fund, which makes the Lottery more responsive to people's priorities and ensures Lottery money goes efficiently to good causes
  • Allows increased public involvement in the Lottery – distributors have been given the powers to consult and take account of public views in making distribution decisions
  • Provides for a new system of allocating investment income from funds held in the National Lottery Distribution Fund for distributors which allows money to go to good causes more quickly
  • Ensures that the licensing and regulation of the National Lottery continues to maximize the returns for good causes

On 11 July 2006 the National Lottery Act received Royal Assent.

Big Lottery Fund

The Big Lottery Fund replaced three previous distributors, the Community Fund, the New Opportunities Fund and the Millennium Commission. With a single distributor and a single set of simpler rules, money is saved and it is easier for potential applicants to access Lottery money. The savings are available as additional Lottery funding for good causes.

To view the Act, the explanatory notes and other related Parliamentary papers visit the UK Parliament website.

Websites of interest