NICVA calls for devolved decision making on lottery funding

news release

3 July 2003

According to NICVA (Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action) the lack of clarity in the ‘future of the lottery’ white paper outlined today by UK Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, “raises more questions than answers ”.

The main contentious issue centres on devolved governance of the new body formed by the merger of the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund — a distributor which will hand out millions in funding.

NICVA's Director of Members Services, Paula Reynolds, said: “The voluntary and community sector here wants to see devolution of decision making to the local level — within Northern Ireland — to ensure that the development of programmes and allocation of funding are designed and delivered to meet local need" .

“Furthermore the Lottery monies, allocated via whichever distributor, should be totally additional to government funding. They must not be used to cover costs which should be met by mainstream government funding. To ensure this, a significant amount of autonomy is required for programme development and decision making .”

Charities throughout Northern Ireland and the UK will be hit hard if good-causes funding is cut by 11% — as seems likely if London is successful with its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

Ms Reynolds added: “NICVA recognises that there is a need for a proportion of the overall monies to be committed to programmes which have a UK-wide remit. However, our sector and the money allocated to it must not be adversely affected by this. It should not be feasible for large sums of money to be drained out of the overall lottery money to go towards capital costs and large scale projects such as the Dome project in the past and potentially the Olympic Games .”

NICVA and its sister umbrella organisations believe that Tessa Jowell ducked the serious issue of devolved control for Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The organisations renewed calls for control of cash to be distributed within their own areas by their own distribution boards or bodies.

NICVA, Wales Council for Voluntary Action and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations are united in their call for devolved control.

End

For further information, please contact:
Lise Mc Greevy Communications Officer, NICVA
028 9087 7777 (NICVA)
07721 746805 (mobile)

Notes to editors:
Further comments made by spokespersons from Wales Council for Voluntary Action and Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Phil Jarrold of WCVA said: “Voluntary and community groups have already seen their share of Lottery proceeds fall as more funding is channelled into public sector projects — and they will want to know how a merger will help them. The lottery was set up before devolution, and any changes must now reflect devolved government in Wales .”

He added that WCVA was calling for the policy directions for the new body to be devolved from London to the Welsh Assembly Government, with only ‘the broad purposes’ set at UK level.

WCVA wanted a distinctive Strategic Plan for Wales for the new body, based on wide consultation, and for decisions on programme implementation and grant allocations to be the responsibility of a Wales bard or committee.

SCVO's Director of Corporate Affairs, Lucy McTernan, said: “This white paper raises more questions than answers. The problem with management of lottery issues in the past is that the decisions are not accountable in Scotland. If you look at bodies like New Opportunity’s Fund with its single UK board or the Millennium Commission, all their decisions are taken in London" .

“The white paper seems to suggest, with its proposals for the Olympics and other so-called ‘transformational’ projects, that this centralised approach is set to continue overall which is why we want to work with the Executive and the DCMS to ensure at least the structure of the new distributor as fully as possible reflects the reality of devolution.”

She added: “If the Olympics bid is successful, it will inevitably lead to the long-term damage of Scotland's charity work as lottery funds are diverted from good causes here to bankroll another ‘Millennium Dome’ type project there. Voluntary organisations north of the border are rightly asking how this will help Scottish communities" .

“There is little in Jowell's paper on how the new body, made from the merger of the New Opportunities Fund and the Community Fund UK, will be governed. SCVO met UK ministers recently to press for new body to look after Scotland's lottery funding priorities to ensure lottery fund money is spent effectively" .

"This position was bolstered by a Scottish Executive statement which favoured the wielding of ‘relevant powers’ by Scottish ministers to direct funding made by the merged body. In its programme for government, the Executive bears a commitment to securing ‘a Scottish Opportunities Fund to provide sustainable core funding to relevant voluntary organisations’ .”