NCVO calls for 12% tax on National Lottery to be split between good causes and prizes

Howard Lake | 31 October 2003 | News

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is calling for the
12% tax on every National Lottery ticket worth £549 million per year to be
split between good causes and lottery players instead of going to the
Government.

NCVO is concerned that the new lottery distributor, to be created by the merger of the Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund, will have to reduce the money going to good causes to fund its additional
responsibilities which will include running a National Lottery day and publicising lottery funded projects.

There is also widespread concern in the voluntary sector that the merger will lead to more money going to the Government’s own projects such as the Olympic bid for London or areas like health and education that would normally have been funded through general taxation. NCVO’s submission to the Government in response to the Department for Culture Media and Sport’s (DCMS) discussion
paper on reform of the lottery, calls for the Treasury’s slice of lottery cash to go to good causes and boost prizes. The DCMS consultation closes today.

Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of NCVO said: ‘I do not believe that the public want the lottery to be just another Government tax sparing only 28p from the sale of each Lotto ticket and scratch card for good causes. If the Government are serious about re-connecting the lottery with the people then they should give half their annual £549 million tax cut to the good causes and half back to the players. Then we might actually see some recovery in the tired National Lottery, which would be great news for the thousands of good causes throughout the UK that now depend on lottery cash and great news for the players.”

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.