Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 51A:"After Clause 32, insert the following new clause—"    ““TRUSTEES UNDER 18 YEARS    In section 20 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (c. 20) (infants not to be appointed trustees) insert the following new subsection— ““(2)   For the purposes of subsection (1), the definition of ““trust”” shall not include unincorporated charities.”””” The noble Lord said: The amendment would enable a young person under 18 years of age to participate in the work of a charity as a trustee. I am grateful for an extensive briefing on this issue from Bess Herbert and Louise King of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, a body supported by Barnardo’s, the British Youth Council and others. The amendment would mean that, for example, 16 and 17 year-olds could be involved in the management of charities which provide services to them, including education, or which seek to represent the views and interest of young people. The current position is that under-18s can be trustees of incorporated charities—charities registered as companies. Thus a new charity, the Welsh Youth Parliament, known as ““Funky Dragon””, was registered in May of last year, with four of its eight trustees aged under 18. But, due to provisions in the Law of Property Act 1925, which debars the appointment of an ““infant”” to be a trustee and defines an infant as someone under 18, no trustee of an unincorporated charity can be under 18. That now seems out of date. The participation of young people is part of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 12 states that all children have the right to express their views, have them taken into account and be given due weight in all matters that affect them. That principle is accepted across the public, voluntary and private sectors. For example, regulations passed by Parliament in 2003 allow children and young people to be part of committees of school governing bodies, with no minimum age. The National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 requires every hospital in the country to set up a patients’ forum that includes children and young people. The Department for Education and Skills published guidelines in 2004 in Working Together: Giving children and young people a say, which gives lots of advice on how children and young people can be more involved in the running of their schools, and so on. It seems that Clause 32 of the Bill, which creates the new legal status for charities of ““charitable incorporated organisations”” and which does not specify an age limit would allow this new kind of charity to have trustees under 18 years old. I would be grateful for confirmation of that from the Minister. If it is the case, it makes the   position of the unincorporated charity even more of an anomaly. Incorporated charities and charitable incorporated organisations can have younger trustees, but the more usual unincorporated charities cannot. There are a number of unincorporated charities that would like to involve those who are under 18 as trustees. The British Youth Council is a prime example. Presently all its trustees are between 18 and 25, but it is prevented from drawing in anyone under 18. Such charities could seek to become incorporated, which would remove the obstacle of infants being ineligible to become trustees. But incorporation is likely to require extensive change to the charity’s constitution and can be a very costly process. My own charity, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, considered incorporation and rejected the idea on those grounds. This is a probing amendment that seeks to see whether there is an opportunity for change to help compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and to enable good practice in encouraging the participation of young people in the affairs of charities. I would be most grateful for the Minister’s views. I beg to move.