: Can the Minister make
a statement on how the Welsh Government supports applications to
the National Lottery for funding for good causes in Wales, and
provide an update on how often the Welsh Government meets with
stakeholders to provide oversight for funding distribution? Thank
you.
(Minister for Social
Justice): Well, thank you very much, Joel James. We don't
have any influence on how and who the National Lottery funds. We
meet regularly with both the director and, indeed, the Wales
representative for National Lottery funds. The overall
responsibility actually lies with my colleague , the deputy Minister, in terms
of overall understanding and liaison in terms of the use of the
funds.
: Thank you, Minister.
It's my understanding that, up until 2020, on the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the lottery, Wales had received about £1.75
billion of funding for good causes. Whilst I acknowledge that
this is an enormous amount, I'm nonetheless conscious that it
only represents around 4 per cent of the total amount of funding
provided in the UK, which was in the region of £40 billion. Even
if you look at this from a percentage of population point of
view, with Wales having about 5 per cent of the UK population, it
would seem that Wales has not received a representative share of
the money available.
Minister, I don't think that this was intentional on the part of
the National Lottery, and it feels more likely due to either a
low number of applications or a high number of poorly presented
applications. So, with this in mind, will the Minister outline
what steps the Welsh Government has taken to increase the number
of applications to maximise the success rate? Thank you.
: As I said, we meet
regularly. I certainly meet regularly with the National Lottery
in relation to those areas of policy relating to social justice.
We also visit projects. I visited a very exciting and innovative
project in Plas Madoc, in my colleague Ken Skate's constituency,
where we saw a really innovative partnership with children and
young people, and older people as well. This was us looking at
how important the National Lottery funding and investment is. I
don't have that information, Joel, in terms of how they are
encouraging more applications, but we work very closely with
them, and I will ask them to report. I'd be very happy to write
to you to give you an update on the awards they've made most
recently, on the themes, which they do look at—for example, the
cost of living is a key area for criteria at the moment—and,
indeed, how they, as we do, encourage people to take up
applications.
: Thank you, Minister. I
look forward to receiving your letter. With regard to the change
now with the National Lottery to Allwyn
Entertainment Ltd, which is scheduled in 2024, has the Welsh
Government had any engagement whatsoever with Allwyn
Entertainment Ltd with regard to funding distribution in Wales?
Do you anticipate any changes to the funding of good causes in
Wales as a result of this new ownership? Thank you.
: No, I haven't had any
engagement, but I certainly will respond to that when I
correspond about lottery application take-up and
distribution.
