LETTER : Lottery Sports Fund allocations

From Mr David Carpenter

Sir: I was very concerned to read that Philip Jackson (Letters, 3 May) had not received information about the National Lottery Sports Fund.

Although we fell short of the required standard on this occasion, I would emphasise that we have tried extremely hard to provide potential Lottery Sports Fund inquirers with full information since we "opened for business" on 4 January. To date we have dealt with 28,000 inquiries. We were the first distributing body to gain accreditation from the National Audit Office and the first to make awards.

We are determined to take advantage of this "unique opportunity" and committed to the development of participation in sport at community level, particularly by young people, and to assist our talented sportsmen and women. We have, to date, committed £21m to 127 sports schemes and will be allocating awards averaging £20m on a monthly basis.

Yours faithfully,

DAVID CARPENTER

National Lottery Sports Fund

London, WC1

4 May