My Lords, I support the amendment proposed by my noble friend, which seems very sensible. I say to the noble Lord who has just sat down that it is a bit rich to talk about how charitable assets can become non-charitable and how once you have gone one way that is the end of it. The Government are seeking to change the rules of the game. Up until now, certainly for most of my life, it has been understood and assumed that education in itself was a charitable purpose.
I do not wish to go back over the arguments that have taken place already on the Bill. However, some people are earnestly trying to provide—sometimes for many hundreds of years—a charitable, educational purpose, and the changes that this legislation will bring about, depending on the attitude of the commissioners, will put them in considerable difficulty. My noble friend has pointed—if I may say so, in his typical, reasonable way—to a way forward without embarking on what might be a rather more partisan view of what exactly is going on behind the Bill and the hardships that will be caused to organisations that are, to my mind, fulfilling a worthy purpose and that are being threatened by a change in the rules brought about by the Government and by narrow prejudice.
Charities Bill [HL]
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
(Conservative)
in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 12 October 2005.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Charities Bill [HL].
About this proceeding contribution
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674 c304-5 Session
2005-06Chamber / Committee
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