Charities Bill [HL]

My Lords, we have been round this course before, as the noble Lord has just said. My colleague and noble friend Lady Whitaker has given voice to a further interest in this matter, because it seems unsatisfactory that the only belief that the Bill recognises for charitable purposes is one specifically recognised as a religious belief. That is unsatisfactory because there are bodies that are created for the betterment of mankind, for the furtherance of philosophical beliefs and for the furtherance of ethical understanding of the way in which people should behave. Provided those organisations are for the public benefit—of course, one has to establish both those points in order to be charitable under the Bill—they ought to be covered. My noble friend Lord Bassam, in the passages to which the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, referred in Committee, referred to the possibility of a belief being furthered which was frivolous or bizarre. If there is an organisation established for frivolous or bizarre beliefs, how on earth could it pass the test of being in the public benefit? That is the substance of my concern about the Bill as it stands. I welcome the amendment that my noble friend Lady Whitaker has proposed.