Air Ambulance charity welcomes Lottery Consultation

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) warmly welcomes today’s announcement by Tracey Crouch, Minister for Sport and Civil Society that she has opened a consultation into Society Lotteries. We look forward to contributing to it.

The Government is recommending an increase in the maximum draw prize from its current limit of £400,000 to £500,000. The consultation also ask for views on increasing the number of tickets society lotteries can sell to a value of £100 million per year and the amount they can raise per draw to £5 million.

Nicole Wastell, Lottery Manager at EHAAT said: “Essex & Herts Air Ambulance will soon reach the £10 million annual sales turnover limit set by the current lottery regulations. Unless the regulations are changed, we will be forced to take out a new licence and restructure our existing lottery, at an estimated total cost of £100,000.

“As a Charity which receives no central Government funding we believe our supporters across Essex & Hertfordshire would prefer us to spend this money delivering our life-saving service.

“Each year our Critical Care Teams are called to over 1,000 life-threatening incidents, at a total cost of £6.5 million. £100,000 could pay for us to attend an extra 40 missions or equip 65 premises, such as our charity shops, with defibrillators”.

On a recent visit to the Charity’s Earl’s Colne airbase Colchester MP Will Quince said: “It is far more important for charities to be spending money on delivering services – particularly those saving lives – rather than having to meet restrictive regulations”.

-ENDS-

The Government Press Release announcing the consultation can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-considers-society-lotteries-reform-to-benefit-good-causes

Nicole Wastell, Lottery Manager at Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust, is available for interview. For more information please contact the EHAAT Communications Team on 0345 2417 690.

Notes to Editor:

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) is a Charity that provides a Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS) for the critically ill and injured of Essex, Hertfordshire and the surrounding areas.

The service is provided free of charge but, unlike NHS emergency services, the Charity receives no direct funding from the Government or National Lottery. It costs £500,000 every month to keep the service operational and saving lives, and this would not be possible without the generosity and goodwill of people and businesses of Essex, Hertfordshire and beyond.

Each of the Charity’s HEMS teams consist of two Pilots, a Pre-hospital Care Doctor and a Critical Care Paramedic.

These teams, made up of highly-skilled individuals, tended to 1077 patients in 2016 and are the backbone of your local life-saving Charity.

The fleet, consisting of two Air Ambulances, and four Rapid Response Vehicles (RRVs - cars) operates seven days a week from 7am to 9pm. After sunset, the Critical Care Team continues to provide the service using Rapid Response Vehicles.

In addition, a Rapid Response Vehicle is operational on a Friday and Saturday evening from 6pm until 2am with a Pre-hospital Care Doctor and Critical Care Paramedic.