Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 47:"After Clause 26, insert the following new clause—"    ““PUBLICATION OF DETAILS OF INQUIRIES (1)   When the Commission publishes a report under section 8(6) of the 1993 Act, it shall include the dates of appointment and termination of any receiver and manager, the cost of the receiver and manager and any other consultants utilised by the receiver and manager, and which of these costs was borne by the charity and which by the Commission. (2)   When the Commission publishes a report under section 8(6) of the 1993 Act, it shall invite on 28 days’ notice the charity, its trustees and all other affected parties to submit for publication with the report an appendix containing those parties’ estimates of the costs to those parties of the inquiry including the cost of consultants, lost time, lost assets, lost income and any other costs. (3)   The Charity Commission must publish at least annually the number of receiver and manager appointments under section 19 of the 1993 Act and include the name of the charity, the name of the receiver and manager, the dates of appointment and termination of the receiver and manager, the costs of any receiver and manager and other consultants, and whether those costs were borne by the charity or the Commission, the costs of other parties including the charity where submitted, and such summarising statistical data as the Commission considers fit.”” The noble Lord said: The purpose of Amendment No. 47 is to require the Charity Commission to publish the financial and other details of each use that it makes of a receiver and manager, summarising statistical data. When similar amendments were proposed in the Grand Committee considering the previous Charities Bill, the Minister agreed that,"““the public may have an interest in the number of receivers and managers appointed each year, and the costs of such appointments. The Charity Commission has recently formally decided to make publicly available, on an annual basis, information about cases where a receiver and manager has been appointed””.—[Official Report, 14/3/05; col. GC 438.]" I congratulate the new management at the Charity Commission on taking this step, which is a step forward. But the fact that it takes a debate in this House and public criticism of the commission to bring about this minor lifting of the veil reminds one of how secretive the commission has been in the past. One cannot help thinking that this small voluntary step could so easily be reversed under different management, especially now that the Government have accepted that they will be unable to issue directions to the commission in future. The commission’s decision does not go far enough; it is too little, too late. We are told that it will voluntarily issue annual statistics, perhaps long after the events of an investigation have taken place. The amendment would require the commission to publish the costs and other details with each case report, as well as annually, so that they can be seen in the context of the investigation. The amendment would also require the commission to publish the charity’s costs in addition to the fees of the receiver and manager. The Minister expressed concern in Grand Committee that by statutorily specifying what must be included in those reports, it would be difficult to change in the light of experience. This amendment does not preclude the commission from publishing further information, nor does it prescribe the form in which it must be published, nor that the information about live cases must be published. It merely sets a minimum standard. Bearing in mind that such information has not been volunteered in the past, this is a sensible precaution. I beg to move.