Big Lottery Fund - Consultation on proposed policy directions

The Cebinet Office has announced a consultation on proposed policy directions for the Big Lottery Fund.

The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said: “Too many long and unwieldy restrictions govern how the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) hands out money, inhibiting their ability to do their job properly. Therefore, in line with the transfer of responsibilities for BIG, the Cabinet Office will open a 12-week consultation on proposed new policy directions for BIG to try to address this. Please do let us know what you think at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). This is incredibly important work and we need to make sure it is done in the best way possible.”

Big Lottery Fund - Consultation on proposed policy directions

Responding to news of the consultation, Third Sector reported that The Office for Civil Society (OCS) has been criticised for changing the wording of the Big Lottery Fund’s additionality principle. The new version removes the line that ‘lottery funding is distinct from government funding’. The consultation is about the new ‘policy directions’ the OCS is proposing to give the BLF.

It immediately sparked concerns that the government had missed a chance to provide greater clarity on the definition of ‘additional’ and had instead further muddied the waters around the independence of lottery funding. Additionality – the principle that lottery funding should be additional to government spending, rather than a substitute for it – has been at the heart of the National Lottery since it was created in 1994.

Policy directions spark concern over Big Lottery Fund’s independence