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

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the equity of the distribution of National Lottery funding throughout the UK.

Over the past 25 years, the National Lottery has awarded over 535,000 grants bringing widespread benefits to communities across the United Kingdom.

National Lottery good cause money is allocated by distributing bodies at arm’s length from Government in the proportions set out in the National Lottery etc Act 1993. Four distributors operate across the UK (National Lottery Community Fund, National Lottery Heritage Fund, UK Sport and British Film Institute) and the remainder (Sport England, Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, Sport Scotland, Arts Council Wales, Sport Wales, Arts Council Northern Ireland and Sport Council Northern Ireland) distribute funding in their respective countries.

When making funding decisions geographical balance is considered by all distributors, alongside where funding will have the most impact in terms of outcomes and benefits. 70% of National Lottery funding has been awarded to projects outside of London and the South East.

Funding levels for areas are often determined by how many applications are submitted. Distributors are aware of some areas being more active in applying than others and actively run specific programmes to encourage applications from less funded areas.