NATIONAL LOTTERIES CHARITIES BOARD

Early day motion 1576, tabled 20 July 1998 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 13 members.

That this House commends the National Lottery Charities Board for piloting the system of jury choice to pick two members of its regional advisory panel in Yorkshire and Humberside and a further two for the London panel; welcomes the Board's decision to monitor the pilot as a possible step to extending the principle of widening membership of quangos by using the mechanism which has been the bedrock of court juries for many years; regards the principle of randomly selecting citizens from the electoral register and then making a final choice by interview and on the basis of voluntary willingness to serve, as a useful way of improving public involvement in those bodies; endorses the NCLB pilot ratio of two members chosen in this way out of a total advisory panel of 13; and requests the Government to draw the pilot to the attention of departments whose advisory panels and related quangos, such as other Lottery distribution agencies and health service authorities, trusts and community health councils, might usefully extend the experiment to a number of their own appointments for a limited period.

Signatures by party: Labour 12, Liberal Democrat 1.