The Heritage Lottery Fund was set up by Parliament in 1994 to give grants to a wide range of projects involving the local, regional and national heritage of the United Kingdom. It distributes a share of the money raised by the National Lottery for Good Causes. In 2006 HLF allocated around £330 million to projects in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Since 1994, the HLF has awarded £3 billion to more than 15,000 projects across the UK. HLF is officially known as a ‘non-departmental public body’. This means that, although it is not a government department, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport issues financial directions to it and HLF reports to Parliament through the department. However, its decisions about individual applications and policies are entirely independent. HLF is administered by the Trustees of the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), which allocates around £5 million per annum to the national heritage, acting as a fund of ‘last resort’.