The umbrella organisation says it has “grave concerns” about the way in which the lottery’s commitment to the sector is currently stated, claiming that there are no assurances that funding is secure. It wants three major changes making to the current bill:

* that the commitment to the sector receiving 60-70% of future funding must be enshrined in the bill;
* that the amount of power the Culture Secretary has to control amounts, purposes or periods of lottery funding must be reduced;
* and that the duty to consult with the sector must be written into the bill.

Pete Moorey, NCVO’s Parliamentary and Campaigns Officer, said: "Over the past eleven years, the National Lottery has been a tremendous boost to voluntary and community organisations. However, we currently have no assurances that this will remain the case. We are rallying our members, nearly 4,000 organisations, to lobby their local MPs to support amendments to the National Lottery Bill to ensure the Lottery maintains the current level of funding for voluntary and community organisations."

In order to help its members lobby their MPs before the Report and Third ready stages of the Bill, anticipated to take place in forthcoming weeks, the NCVO has produced an online Campaign Toolkit, which contains background information on the bill, FAQs and a briefing on the Standing Committee Stage, as well as details about how they can write to, email or fax their local MPs.

It can be accessed at www.nvco-vol.org.uk/lotterycampaign