Regulating with Excellence

The Lottery was set up to benefit the nation as a whole and we are committed to making sure the public get the best deal possible. We want to make sure that our regulation achieves this, whilst avoiding tying up the operator in unnecessary red tape.

As part of our continuing efforts to improve our regulation in January 2009 we published a document called The Principles of Regulating with Excellence which looked at how we can apply the principles of better regulation apply to our work. This led to us setting up a development programme that we call Regulating with Excellence (REx for short.)

The REx programme is made up of several different areas:

• Outcome-based regulation: We aim take our focus away from the processes Camelot should follow, to the outcomes that we want it to achieve.
• Earned autonomy/proportionality: We look to take into account Camelot’s past performance and expertise over their 15 years of operating the Lottery.
• Informed analysis of operator performance: We are reviewing the way we monitor Camelot to make sure that it is generating as much as possible for good causes, and is in a healthy financial state.
• Transparency: We aim to be accountable to the public and make sure our decisions are clearly recorded and understood.
• Public engagement: We want to make sure that we consider opportunities for engaging with the public, so that our decision making is more player-focussed and informed.
• Enforcement: We need to make sure that our approach to enforcement is in line with the better regulation principles.

  A better way to regulate the National Lottery

  In December 2010 we published a report which looked at the changes we have made to the way we work as a result of the REx Programme. The report, called A better way to regulate the National Lottery shows the progress we have made in better focusing and streamlining Lottery regulation. You can download the report from the left-hand side of this page, or by clicking here.

  Case study: Earned Autonomy

  In order to make sure Camelot are performing well and players are properly protected, we ask them to provide a number of reports to us on a regular basis. As part of our move towards better regulation we decided to look again at each of these reports to see if the number of reports we were asking for was proportionate to the risks we were managing. By reviewing what information we need and talking to Camelot about the burdens that reporting puts on them; we were able to agree to a 40% reduction in the number of regular reports that Camelot need to send us each year. This reduction alone has saved Camelot 600 hours in staff time every year.

Related downloads

• A better way to regulate the National Lottery

  Report

  (pdf - 538kb)

• The Principles of Regulating with Excellence, January 2009

  The Commission strives for excellence and constantly looks at ways in which its regulatory model can be improved. This paper sets out how we will refine our regulatory approach as we enter the third licence period.

  (pdf - 934kb)

• A review of the National Lottery Commission's Approach to Regulation

  This paper is a review of our regulatory model undertaken in April 2006.

  (pdf - 176kb)