• 
• Print this page

navigation

• Homepage
• Review 06/07
• Camelot & responsibility
• About Camelot
• Camelot & The National Lottery
• Good Causes
• Promotion & involvement
• London 2012
• Living our values
• Defining our priorities
• Socio–economic impact
• CR management & governance
• Improving our management
• Responsible lobbying
• Stakeholder engagement
• Responsible play
• Our people & communities
• Business relationships
• Environmental impact
• Performance overview
• Using this report
• Downloads
• Feedback

Good Causes

Cumulative total raised by lottery players available to Good Causes (£ billions)

Money raised annually for Good Causes (£ millions)

The figures include sales and unclaimed prizes and income to the NLDF and OLDF through investment returns.

main content

Since the first lottery balls started rolling in 1994, over £20 billion has been raised, benefiting Good Causes in the arts, heritage, health, education, sport, environment, voluntary and charity sectors, through more than 250,000 grants. This represents the biggest programme of civic regeneration since Victorian times. Our returns to Good Causes remain strong, raising a total of £1,419 million in 2006/07.

You can see the breakdown of how the lottery pound is spent in Camelot and The National Lottery. Over the duration of the second licence period, for every £1 spent on the lottery, on average 28p went to Good Causes.

Together with the National Lottery Distribution Bodies we have a shared interest in raising positive public awareness of Good Causes funding, since this contributes to the health and success of The National Lottery.

Without doubt, lottery funding has had a hugely positive impact on the lives of millions of people around the UK. Communities the length and breadth of the country have benefited from this huge programme of investment, with grants ranging from £300 to many millions of pounds, playing a critical role in the revival of those communities.

For example:

• More than £480 million of National Lottery funding has regenerated historic UK parks and created new green spaces
• Over £10 billion of lottery funding has gone towards projects benefiting children and young people
• Eight of the UK's most popular attractions have received lottery funding, including the British Museum, the Tower of London and The Eden Project
• £258 million has been invested in village and community centres across the UK
• Over £1 billion of lottery funding has gone into creating new waterways and cleaning up existing canals throughout the UK
• The National Lottery bought land over three times the size of the Isle of Wight to protect precious habitat for rare species
• Thanks to nearly £0.5 billion of lottery funding, a new wave of science and environment visitor centres have been created, from the Eden Project in Cornwall to Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh and W5 in Belfast.

Sport has always, and continues, to benefit from lottery funding both at grass roots and elite performance level. Since 1994 over £3 billion has been invested in sport across the UK. Over the last 10 years lottery finding has transformed elite sport with 61 Olympic and 226 Paralympic medals having been won by lottery-backed athletes. The National Lottery is also playing a major role helping to ensure that the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in London are one of the most successful Games ever. We have been asked to raise £2.2 billion for London 2012⁴. Read more about fundraising for London 2012.

Read more about the around 250,000 grants that have received lottery funding.

How funding works

The National Lottery is run and regulated by The Department for Culture Media and Sports (DCMS), The National Lottery Commission (NLC), Camelot Group plc and the distribution bodies. Of these, only the distribution bodies actually decide where the money should be spent but it's important to understand how The National Lottery family works together.

Camelot Group plc is the current operator of The National Lottery. We raise the money that is paid into the National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF) and the Olympic Lottery Distribution Fund (OLDF) but have no involvement in or influence over how that money is spent.

The DCMS sets the policy direction for The National Lottery. It maintains and manages the NLDF and the OLDF, and issues general guidelines for distributors but has no direct influence over which projects receive funding. The money held in the NLDF is invested until the distributing bodies draw on it to pay for projects. Any interest accrued by the Fund is re-invested in Good Causes.

The NLC was set up to regulate the operator - currently Camelot - and make sure The National Lottery is run in a fit and proper manner. It is not involved in, and has no influence over, the way money is spent on Good Causes. The NLC runs the licence competition. The first licence was issued in May 1994 and the second in December 2000. The third licence, due to start in 2009, was awarded to Camelot in September 2007.

The Lottery funders are the distribution bodies, who decide which projects will benefit from funding. They are:

• Arts Council England
• Arts Council of Northern Ireland
• Arts Council of Wales
• Scottish Arts Council
• Big Lottery Fund (including Awards for All)
• Heritage Lottery Fund
• Olympic Lottery Distributor (this fund is not open for general applications)
• UK Film Council
• Scottish Screen
• UK Sport
• Sport England
• sportsscotland
• Sports Council for Northern Ireland
• Sports Council for Wales

As well as raising as much money as we can for Good Causes in a socially responsible way by increasing the game portfolio and introducing new and innovative ways to play, we place a strong emphasis on raising positive public awareness of lottery-funded projects. Read more about how we help to publicise lottery projects across the country.

⁴£675 million of which is subject to parliamentary approval