July news update

Welcome to the National Lottery Commission’s latest news update. The last few weeks have been a busy time for the Commission, so it’s a full edition! If you would like more information on anything covered in the update or to add someone to our distribution list, contact us at info@natlotcomm.gov.uk.

Provisional decision on Camelot’s proposals to use National Lottery infrastructure to offer commercial services

On Friday 16 July we announced our decision on Camelot’s proposal to offer commercial services through National Lottery terminals. The Commission’s provisional decision is to not grant consent to the proposal on the basis of the EU/competition law concerns it raises. A full explanation of the reasons we came to this decision are set out in a Statement of Reasons that is available on our website.

In the interests of fairness, we are giving those who are interested in the Commission’s decision a final opportunity to make representations. If you wish to make a representation about the provisional decision please write to Mark Harris, Chief Executive, National Lottery Commission, 101 Wigmore Street, London W1U 1QU by 3 September 2010.

New licence raises an extra £90 million for good causes

Figures from our recently published Annual Report for 2009-10 show that during the year £1.6 billion was raised for good causes, a 15 percent increase on the previous year. Of this increase, £90 million was the direct result of the new licence structure, which we secured in the last licence competition. As Mark, our Chief Executive said when we published the report, it is great news that the benefits of the competition are being realised.

The report was laid in Parliament last week and provides a detailed summary of our independent regulation over the year, as well as being a useful reference source for Lottery facts and figures. You can download a copy of the report from our website here, or for a hard copy of the report please send your details to Claire Wotherspoon at c.wotherspoon@natlotcomm.gov.uk.

Consent granted to the transfer of Camelot shares

We have now completed our assessment of the terms of the purchase of shares in Camelot Group Limited by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and given our consent to the sale, which has been completed. This consent followed our careful scrutiny of the proposals from OTPP. We secured necessary clarifications and improvements to the purchaser’s proposals, as well as completing checks into their fitness and propriety to ensure that the public interest in the National Lottery is safeguarded. We are looking forward to working with OTPP to continue the huge success of the Lottery.

You can see our news release here and some information about the new owners is on Camelot’s website, here.

Potential merger with the Gambling Commission

As the Secretary of State mentioned today in a written ministerial statement; as part of the government’s review of Arm’s Length Bodies the department of Culture, Media and Sport is considering whether to merge the National Lottery Commission and the Gambling Commission. Both organisations are working with the department to provide input to the process of developing a business case which will assess whether it would be more efficient to merge the two organisations.

We believe that whoever regulates the Lottery, it is vitally important to keep the current regulatory functions intact and adequately resourced to safeguard National Lottery players and maintain the increased returns to good causes achieved by the Third Licence competition.

Review of our Enforcement arrangements completed

The Commission has published our new, revised Enforcement Policy, setting out how we will approach enforcement over the course of the third licence. We would like to thank all those who contributed to the consultation on this new policy and we hope you will agree that the new policy is both fair and proportionate. The policy is part of our commitment to applying the principles of better regulation to our work. By publishing our approach to enforcement we hope to be more transparent about how we make enforcement decisions.

You can find the enforcement policy here and the consultation decision document here.

Welsh language scheme consultation

We have launched a consultation on our draft Welsh Language Scheme. The Commission has adopted the principle that in the conduct of public business in Wales, it will treat the English and Welsh languages on a basis of equality. The scheme sets out how we will apply this principle when providing services to the public. To see the scheme and for details of how to respond to our consultation, please click here