By Culture Secretary Chris Smith

Last month I announced the members of our new national lottery commission, the latest in a long series of initiatives which the government has launched to ensure that the national lottery continues to enjoy the confidence of those who play it, and brings more benefit to more people and more communities through the good causes fund.

The five commissioners will replace the general director of Oflot. By spreading between a whole team what up until now has been the responsibility of a single person, we aim to build an extra safeguard against any risk, or any accusation, that there might be conflicts of interest in the management of the lottery.

We also want to ensure that the views and interests of ordinary lottery players are forcefully represented right at the very heart of the lottery's operation. I am confident that we will meet both those ambitions successfully.

Chris Smith: Wants to represent views of players

By advertising the commissioners' posts in the national press we were able to draw together, from literally hundreds of applicants, a group of people with a formidable range of expertise and a variety of independent opinions, including differences of political outlook.

One of the most demanding tasks facing them will be the selection of a new operator to run the lottery when Camelot's seven year licence expires towards the end of 2001.

Although the final responsibility for the lottery will remain with me as secretary of state for culture, media and sport, it will be the commission's job to invite applications, consider bids and award the licence, not mine.

That's a further guarantee of independence in the management of the lottery. I am sure the commission will want to move quickly to issue guidance on the key elements they want to see in any application and publish any proposals for changes to the licence for the next operator in the light of experience so far.

Huge success

In its first four years the lottery has been a huge success, and Camelot deserve congratulation for what they have done.

It was expected to raise �9bn over seven years for the five good causes - charities, sport, arts, heritage and the millennium. In fact by the end of licence period that total is likely to exceed �10.6bn.

The extra money is not only benefiting all the original good causes, it has allowed the government to establish a sixth good cause, the new opportunities fund, which responds directly to the wishes of lottery players and the general public to see lottery funds channelled into health, education and environment projects.

Now we want to build on that success by holding a tough competition for the next operator's licence. That is the surest way to have the best lottery, the best prizes, and the best return for the good causes.

The competition will provide a great opportunity for bidders with imagination and innovative thinking to set out their ideas.

The challenge is to take the UK lottery into the 21st century perhaps with a new mix of games, perhaps with new ways to play games, taking advantage of the latest developments in technology and people's familiarity with them.

I'm confident we can expect some radical and imaginative proposals because the prize for the successful bidder is mouth-watering - the chance to run the biggest lottery in the world.

Strong bidder

I am sure Camelot will be one of the contenders, and they have a strong pitch to make. But there will be other contenders too, and I've no doubt that at least one bid will be to run the lottery on a not-for-profit basis.

That is what I would like to see happen and it would be in the spirit of the "people's lottery" for which we campaigned at the last general election.

But, of course, the core concern of the commission, and the government, must be for a lottery that is run with complete and transparent probity, which protects the interests of players in a responsible way and which delivers the best possible return for the good causes.

We have already set up the statutory framework for the competition. In September I gave the director general of Oflot a new set of directions on the way he performs his statutory functions and the responsibility for following through those directions will now rest with the new commission.

The licence covering the existing operator is unlikely to change in any significant way, and in any case can only be changed with the agreement of the operator.

Now it is up to the lottery commission to get the process rolling once it has formally assumed its responsibilities on 1 April. It will recognise the need for potential bidders - and that includes Camelot - to have adequate time to prepare bids which are likely to represent a considerable investment of time, effort and cash.

I want to see the decision made well before the end of the current licence, so that if there is a switch to a new operator it can be made without affecting the service to players.

That is why I am making sure that there is a smooth transition from Oflot to the commission, and that it happens now.

We haven't forgotten that the biggest, most important, and most consistent lottery winners are the people who benefit from the projects it funds in communities up and down Britain.