Ms Carol Boate:

I thank the Deputy. My role in this area is to ensure that the operator is complying with its obligations to spend these moneys on promoting the national lottery and on nothing else, and that those promotional activities shall include some top-up and additional prizes. The operator must then comply with the detailed restrictions on how it advertises and promotes the national lottery that appear elsewhere in the licence.

We do this routinely. We receive regular reports showing how prizes are expiring and an annual report on how the money has been allocated and spent on promoting the national lottery. We also regularly review the content of their advertising and promotion, which includes PR and direct marketing to players where they have opted in for it.

In terms of “shall” and “may”, it does not afford a particular proportion of itself but-----