Lottery Northern Ireland

National Lottery Policy and Legislation is a Reserved matter. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has overall responsibility for the Lottery within Government and in conjunction with the devolved administrations sets the policy and financial framework within which the Lottery operates.

28p of every £1 spent on the Lottery goes to the five good causes:

• arts and film;
• charitable expenditure;
• health, education and the environment;
• heritage; and
• sport.

Since the Lottery began in 1994 over £22bn has been made available UK-wide, with some £845m coming to Northern Ireland for around 15,900 projects.

In Northern Ireland there are four Lottery distributors:

• The Big Lottery Fund;
• The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF);
• The Arts Council of Northern Ireland (ACNI);and
• Sport Northern Ireland (SNI).   

Each distributor has its own programme and funding priorities and make grant decisions independently of Government.

You can get more information on how to apply for a Lottery grant through the Lottery Funding website or by telephoning the Lottery Funding Hotline on 0845 275 0000.

Details of all Lottery grants awarded can be accessed via the National Lottery Grants Search Database.