Charities Bill [HL]

moved, as an amendment to Amendment No. 16, Amendment No. 17: Line 2, after ““must”” insert ““, where appropriate,”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I am grateful for the undertaking that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, gave at the end of his introduction of Amendment No. 16. It leaves me with little to say beyond the fact that NCVO, among many charities, was anxious about the effect of placing just a bare duty on the commission to have regard to the desirability of facilitating innovation. Just adding the words ““where appropriate”” or something like that would dispel its anxiety that an intervening commission could thunder around requiring innovation on all occasions by all charities—although that is highly unlikely, one must allow for the possibility. Many charities are not in the business of innovation at all; for example, almshouses are in the business of anything but that. I beg to move.