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The new targets will continue to focus partners across government and beyond to work together to reduce reoffending. We will continue to provide support for those offenders who are trying to change and turn away from offending, but for those offenders unwilling

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to change, the targets provide renewed emphasis of the need to catch and convict them as speedily and efficiently as possible.

Spending Review 2002 target

We will report our performance against the 2002 spending review target to reduce reoffending by 5 per cent by 2006 when the 2006 data become available.

Roads

Lord Bassam of Brighton: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport (Ruth Kelly) has made the following Ministerial Statement.

Roads are vital to our way of life, connecting people with jobs, schools, shops, family and friends. We must ensure that road users have reliable journeys on safe, well-managed roads. So today I am publishing the Command Paper Roads—Delivering Choice and Reliability which sets out how we aim to get the best out of the road network.

The greatest barrier to reliable journeys is congestion. It is frustrating for motorists and has serious consequences for the economy and the environment. So we are taking a number of important steps to tackle it, focusing our efforts over the next decade on where congestion is worst—on our urban roads and motorways.

I am today announcing that £6 billion is available to fund improvements to national strategic roads in England in the period up to 2014. These improvements could include an innovative mix of road widening, opening up the hard shoulder, and junction improvements. In the Command Paper I set out which national schemes are being considered for this funding, which is in addition to that for strategic regional roads provided through the regional funding allocation process.

While some road building is needed to provide extra capacity, we must also consider how to add capacity to existing roads. That is why I am exploring where the hard shoulder could be used to provide extra space on the motorway network. Where we add new capacity either by using the hard shoulder, or by widening roads, I am particularly interested to see what role tolled or car-share lanes could play to give motorists a more reliable journey. Further work will be done on this in the coming months.

I am also today publishing cost estimates for the Highways Agency major roads programme. Since the Nichols review last year, the Highways Agency has made some important changes to its management of the roads programme. These changes are outlined in the Command Paper. The revised cost estimates for regional schemes will help the regions plan their programmes more effectively over the coming regional funding allocation period. I am placing a copy of the estimates in the Libraries of both Houses.

The majority of congestion is in our towns and cities so we have allocated an extra £200 million per year from the transport innovation fund to help local authorities manage congestion in innovative ways. I am announcing today that further pump-priming funding will go to Cambridgeshire, Reading and Leeds to help them take forward their ideas. I have also previously

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announced that, to help local authorities with their thinking on congestion charging, we will run a demonstrations project to trial the technology and processes that could underpin a more sophisticated future congestion charging system. My department will today tell all those companies that formally expressed an interest in participating in the project the names of the successful bidders. The trials are due to start in the autumn.

I am also today announcing that eight of the 10 largest urban areas in England, that all have congestion targets, will receive the first tranche of the performance-related payments from the urban congestion performance fund. The fund is worth £60 million over four years and, based on their 2006-07 target performance data, £6 million will be shared between Bristol, Greater Manchester, Leicester, London, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear and the West Midlands. All 10 areas will be eligible for further funding based on future years' performance data. This funding, along with an additional £8 million I am announcing today to help local authorities manage their transport assets more effectively, on top of £15 million already announced in January, is all in addition to the amounts provided through the regional funding allocation process.

It is important that people have the reliable journeys they want. The Command Paper I am publishing today sets out a clear strategy for getting the best out of our roads in the coming years so we can make that a reality.

Society Lotteries

Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Gerry Sutcliffe) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

In recent months my department has received representations from the Lotteries Council and the Hospice Lotteries Association, seeking changes to the regulatory regime for non-commercial society lotteries established by Section 99 of the Gambling Act 2005 (“the Act”). Societies under the Act are typically national and local charities, sporting and social clubs that run lottery draws in order to raise funds for local good causes such as hospices or air ambulances. Societies which operate lotteries that raise more than £20,000 in a single draw or over £250,000 in a year must be licensed by the Gambling Commission.

The aim of the representations I have received has been to persuade the Government to increase the present limit on the maximum proceeds which are permitted to be raised by society lotteries in a single draw, from the present limit of £2 million. This would also allow a larger top prize to be offered, since the Act provides that a person buying a society lottery ticket cannot win more than 10 per cent of the overall proceeds of the draw.

These representations have been echoed in Parliament. Through signing Early Day Motion 1570 tabled by the honourable Member for Bolton North East (Mr David Crausby) in May this year, 70 honourable Members

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on all sides have expressed support for an increase in proceeds limits under the Act, specifically in relation to hospice lotteries.

While very few societies currently reach the present limits, some have argued that the limits hold them back, for example by preventing a number of societies coming together to promote a larger one-off annual draw.

The Government have always been willing to consider representations made on behalf of the good causes which benefit from society lotteries, as we showed when we doubled the then society lottery limits in 2002. The 2005 Act also introduced a range of deregulatory measures designed to assist society lotteries. I have considered the arguments now put by the Lotteries Council and Hospice Lotteries Council, as well as the views of honourable Members. I have also taken into account the view of the Gambling Commission, which, as the Government’s principal adviser on gambling matters, has also recommended an increase.

I have had to balance these arguments for increasing the amount which society lotteries can raise for projects with my responsibility for ensuring that the licensing objectives of the Gambling Act are observed. There is a significant risk that increasing the limit on proceeds of lottery draws, and hence the top prize available, by too great an amount could significantly change the character of a society lottery by appealing to players for whom winning such a prize would be a greater attraction than supporting the charitable cause in question. Very high prizes also bring with them an increased risk of fraud and other criminal activity.

Having weighed these considerations, I have concluded that there is a reasonable justification for a limited increase in the maximum proceeds that society lotteries may raise in a single lottery draw. I am now able to inform the House how the Government intend to proceed.

I will tomorrow publish a three-month consultation paper on a proposal to increase to £4 million the maximum proceeds for each individual society lottery draw. This will entail a top prize of up to £400,000 for each draw. There will be no increase to the annual maximum proceeds per society lottery of £10 million since no society lotteries presently reach that limit. The maximum £25,000 prize for society lotteries whose proceeds are below £250,000 will also remain unaltered.

If in the light of public consultation we decide to proceed, either with this proposal or another that suggests itself in the light of responses to the consultation, we will bring forward the necessary order. This will be for Parliament to approve by means of an affirmative resolution, requiring a debate and potentially a vote in both Houses.

This measure would benefit around 630 societies which are presently licensed by the Gambling Commission to operate society lotteries. I believe that it would provide a valuable boost to hospices, charities and other good causes which raise funds through lottery draws, whilst retaining the character of society lotteries and remaining wholly consistent with the licensing objectives of the Act.

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