UK Parliament / Open data

Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [Lords]

I am grateful that you should direct me in that manner, Madam Deputy Speaker. The final statement that I was about to make was about the amount of money coming from the Big Lottery Fund to support the Olympic games. That is why the two earlier figures were relevant. It is estimated that 20 per cent. of the Big Lottery Fund's money from between 2007 and 2013 will be spent on the Olympic games. I and many of my constituents certainly believe that that is an improper use of lottery fund money. I raise that point in the hope that we will not see such behaviour with regard to the dormant funds of many honest and good people who have forgotten about them, died or moved elsewhere, leaving behind the money in the bank accounts that we need to take in this way. I call on the Minister to reassure us that that money will not be spent to prop up Government expenditure over the next three, four or five years, when the Government will be stretched. I come to the end of my remarks, but I have one final plea. Enough comment has been made and enough concerns have been expressed tonight to make us wary and—to support the comments made by the hon. Member for High Peak—to make us dedicated to getting this right. I know the Minister to be an honest and fair man and that he will want to achieve the same outcome. I hope that he will tell us as he sums up how he might achieve that and how the Government might act in Committee to meet many of the concerns that have been raised this evening and to prove conclusively to the British people that the measure will be a fair and honest way of spending money from dormant accounts and to use it rightly for good ends, rather than to support the Government at a time when their own financial concerns are under immense stress.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

480 c84 

Session

2007-08

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber
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