5 June 1998

Charities Board uses Jury system to involve the Public in its Grant Giving

The National Lottery Charities Board has announced that it will adopt the jury selection process of using electoral rolls to recruit members of the public to sit on two of its nine England Regional Advisory Panels - London and Yorkshire and the Humber. The Board will also use a Lottery bonus ball number to draw up lists of members of the public from the electoral register to participate in this experiment. It is the first time this method has been used to involve members of the public in an official body.

Janet Paraskeva, Director for England, explained why the Board is encouraging the general public to take part in the decisions on grants. ‘This is an excellent opportunity for members of the public to have a voice in our decision making.

‘Each panel offers advice about how tens of millions of pounds worth of Lottery money is allocated each year. We want members of the public to be involved in how the money is allocated.

‘We are using the electoral roll, which is how jury members are selected, to provide lists of individuals from which the participants will be chosen.’

She explained that the selection procedure uses the Lottery draw numbers to ensure fairness. ‘We randomly selected two London boroughs, Westminster and Bexley, and two local authority areas, York and Barnsley. We are now writing to people in these areas whose electoral roll number ends in 32 - the bonus ball number from the National Lottery draw of 23 May. We will interview those people who are willing to take part, and select one person from each area.’

The new regional advisory members will be recruited by September 1998. If this experiment is successful the system may be extended to other English regions.