Gay Mitchell
Question:45 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health whether he plans to devote more of his allocation of national lottery funds to voluntary agencies in 1992 in view of the growing difficulties of their fund raising activities.
Written Answers. - National Lottery Funding.
The distribution of national lottery funds allocated to my Department is made on the basis of continuing commitments to fund particular programmes and services and on the merits of individual applications. From 1990 onwards, a proportion of the lottery money has been made available in block grants to the health boards which they in turn distribute mainly to local voluntary agencies operating in their areas. In assessing the merit of applications at national level, the particular difficulties of voluntary organisations and the cost-effectiveness of their contribution is given special consideration. While I am sympathetic to the point made by the Deputy, I am not in a position to make a significant change in the distribution of funding other than on a phased basis, having regard to the proportion of the total funding already committed.