Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 lockdown on sales of National Lottery tickets.

Camelot releases sales information under a timetable and format agreed with its regulator, the Gambling Commission. Data on sales is published on the Camelot website three months in arrears. This can be found at: http://www.camelotgroup.co.uk/about-us/reporting

The March 2020 sales data was published alongside Camelot's 2019/20 year-end sales announcement on 2nd June, in which they announced record yearly sales for the National Lottery.

National Lottery ticket sales during March totalled £687.1 million. Sales were down £36.4 million versus the equivalent period last year. Retail sales in particular were impacted towards the end of March and into April as a result of the lockdown measures. However, after a sharp initial fall in sales in the early stages of the lockdown they are now recovering to close to normal levels.