Every penny of lottery money should go to good causes

In a keynote speech to mark the National Lottery’s 15th Anniversary Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt will unveil a package of measures to increase the returns to the Lottery good causes by £186 million a year.

"It is more vital than ever that every penny of lottery money is spent on good causes and not political outreach programmes, self-publicity and unnecessary bureaucracy", he will say.

The measure Hunt is proposing include:

• Abolishing the National Lottery Commission and giving its regulatory functions to the Gambling Commission.
• Banning all Lottery Distributors from having press, public relations and communications departments.
• Introducing a cap of 5% on administration costs.
• Returning the National Lottery to its original good causes of sport, arts, heritage and charities.

Last year, the seven main Lottery Distributors spent £120m on admin costs, which amounts to 11.4% of the £1.05bn they distributed. Hunt said this was a "grotesque", especially as charities, community groups and voluntary organisations are under "such intense scrutiny from those very same lottery distributors to get every penny possible out of administration and into delivery".