Lottery figures show Scots charities losing

SCOTTISH charities and good causes have lost out to their counterparts in the rest of the UK in the distribution of cash from National Lottery funds, new figures revealed yesterday.

Scotland received 96 million, or about 6 per cent of the 1.6 billion given out by the National Lottery Good Causes Fund in the 2004-5 financial year, despite having 8.5 per cent of the British population.

The discrepancy, revealed yesterday in the first detailed analysis by the National Lottery, breaks a trend of healthy Scottish funding. Up until this year, Scotland has received more than 10 per cent of funds.

A lottery spokesman said the figures were an "anomaly" and funds would even out over the next few years. But analysts warned that the figures could mean worse was to come, as a newly-established Lottery Fund to raise 750 million for the London Olympics in 2012 will almost certainly diminish funds north of the Border.

The figures prompted the Scottish National Party to renew its call for a lottery fund to support Glasgow's bid for the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

The MP Peter Wishart said: "These figures are the thin edge of the large Olympic iceberg. A new Olympic lottery will surely mean that Scottish good causes will lose out."