Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 80:"Page 138, leave out line 27 and insert—" ““(1)   Section 47 (public inspection of annual reports etc.) is amended as follows. (2)   In subsection (1)—”” The noble Lord said: in moving Amendment No. 80, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 81. Section 47(2) of the Charities Act 1993 gives any member of the public a right to require a charity to send him or her a copy of its latest accounts. That seems sensible to me. Not long ago, Mr Alan Mears of High Wycombe wrote to the Bill manager in the Home Office, suggesting that it was an anomaly that ought to be remedied by the Bill and that the right was confined to the charity’s accounts and did not extend to the annual report. I agree with Mr Mears that there should be a public right to a copy of a charity’s latest annual report, as well as its latest accounts. I congratulate him on pointing this out to us. These amendments, the Mears amendments, correct the anomaly he identified. Three cheers to Mr Mears. I beg to move.