The Heritage Lottery Fund’s Chair and 14 Trustees are appointed by the Prime Minister to run the Fund. They receive advice from heritage experts and work within laws made by Parliament and directions given by Government. The board makes decisions on applications over £1 million and on the UK-wide targeted programmes, Townscape Heritage Initiative, Parks for People, Repair Grants for Places of Worship and Landscape Partnerships. Their decisions about individual applications and matters of policy are made entirely independently.
The Board delegates decision-making to 12 regional and country committees made up of local people recruited through open advertisement. They make decisions on awards over £50,000 and up to £1 million and are supported by teams based in the nine English regions and in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The 12 teams work with local communities and organisations to support applications and to assess them once submitted. The country and regional offices oversee the processing of applications in their particular area. They are also responsible for outreach and other activities in their country or region, and the heads of region or country take delegated decisions on small grants up to £50,000.
We currently employ over 250 staff, based across the UK. Our head office staff work in different departments and teams with special responsibilities. These include communications, finance, information technology, legal services, personnel, policy and research, and support for our board of trustees and committees as well as the operations departments.
Our commitment to you
Underpinning all of our activities is a desire to provide an efficient, economical and effective service that is easily accessible to potential and actual applicants, and all who want to find out more about what we do. To find out more, read our Customer Service Charter.
We are always looking for ways to improve our services. Please contact us and let us know what you think about the Heritage Lottery Fund - what we are doing well and what we can do better.
Freedom of Information
We are committed to openness in our dealings with applicants and grantees, the public, press, government and other public bodies. As an aid to transparency and accountability, our publications scheme identifies broad categories of information that we hold which may be of public interest.
Equality & Diversity
We are fully committed to the provision of equal access and opportunity, both through the lottery funds that we distribute, and as an employer. As users of the disability symbol, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for our job vacancies.
We are committed to creating and sustaining a culture that attracts, values and supports diverse talents and skills, ensuring that everyone is treated with dignity and respect. At all stages of the employment cycle applicants and staff will be judged fairly and objectively on their abilities.
Making a complaint
All Lottery Distributors follow the same procedure for the handling of complaints. This process is explained in our ‘Making a Complaint' leaflet. To download the leaflet click on the following links:
English 
95 KB | Welsh 
100 KB
Warning: Bogus awards
Have you been told you have won a prize from the Heritage Lottery Fund?
HLF does not operate a Lottery or distribute prizes. We only make grants in response to applications. So, if you receive an email telling you that you have won a prize, it has not come from us. No lottery that asks for payment in order to claim a prize belongs to either the HLF or the UK National Lottery.
There are some lotteries that ask you to pay to claim your prize. We do not know which of these lotteries are valid. Some pay-to-claim lotteries are regarded by the Metropolitan Police or the Gaming Board of Great Britain as being fraudulent. If you would like further information, please contact the Met. Police by email or visit their website.
Our advice is that you exercise caution and do not part with your money or give your details to an unknown party or company and check the lottery’s legal status first.