Media centre

Key facts:

• The National Lottery was launched in 1994
• National Lottery players have raised £24 billion for Good Causes since 1994
• The National Lottery generates over £25 million for Good Causes every week
• The UK National Lottery returns a higher proportion of Lottery revenue back to society than any other Lottery operator in the world
• Over 330,000 grants have been given out across the arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment
• Over half of all grants awarded have been for under £5,000
• Around 70% of adults regularly play a National Lottery game.

Good Causes areas:

The original five Good Causes established when the Lottery began were arts, charities, heritage, Millennium projects and sports. In 1998,  ‘health, education and environment’ was designated as an additional Good Cause.  The Big Lottery Fund is the legal successor to The Millennium Commission, which ceased to exist at the end of 2006.  Lottery support for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games became a Good Cause in 2005.

Split of funding to Good Causes:

The income from each ticket sale, which is passed to the Lottery distributors, is worked out according to a formula set out in the operating licence.  Currently, sport, arts and heritage each receive 16 and two-thirds percent of this income and the Big Lottery Fund receives the remaining 50 percent.

The Lottery family;
a) The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
Sets the policy direction for The National Lottery. It issues general guidelines for distributors but has no influence over which projects receive funding.
It maintains and manages the National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF). The money in the NLDF is invested until it is drawn down by the Lottery distributors for payment to projects as and when it is needed. Interest from the Fund is re-invested in Good Causes.

b) The National Lottery Commission (NLC)
The NLC is the regulator of the operator, Camelot, and exists to make sure that the Lottery is run in a fit and proper manner. It has no involvement in or influence over the distribution of money for Good Causes. NLC runs the license competition – the first licence was issued May 1994; the second was issued December 2000; the third license was issued in August 2007 and commenced in February 2009.

c) Camelot Group plc
The operator of the Lottery.  Camelot raises the money paid into the NLDF and OLDF but has no involvement in or influence over its distribution.

d) The Lottery funders (Distributing Bodies)
The organisations responsible for distributing Lottery money to the Good Causes:

• Arts Council England
• Arts Council of Northern Ireland
• Arts Council of Wales
• Scottish Arts Council
• Big Lottery Fund (including Awards for All and Millennium Commission
• Heritage Lottery Fund
• Olympic Lottery Distributor (not open for general applications)
• UK Film Council
• Scottish Screen
• UK Sport
• Sport England
• Sportscotland
• Sports Council for Northern Ireland
• Sports Council for Wales

e) The National Lottery Promotions Unit
The role of the National Lottery Promotions Unit is to raise positive awareness of, and support for, the benefits of Lottery Good Causes funding across the UK. Set up in 2004, we are committed to communicating how The National Lottery has changed people’s lives for the better.  The role of the NLPU is also to create a pan-Lottery identity – bringing together the seven diverse areas of Lottery funding so that the public gets a clear understanding of where their Lottery money goes.

For further information, please contact:

• Caroline Wood, Head of Media, National Lottery Promotions Unit: 020 7211 3996. 
• Rebecca Neale, Senior Media Relations Manager, National Lottery Promotions Unit: 020 7211 3894.