Charities Bill [HL]

My Lords, in defence of surveyors, I would merely point out to the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, that in the instance that the noble Lord, Lord Best, gave, there might well have been a substantial difference between a valuation and a purchase price. That is not necessarily the surveyor getting the price wrong. It is the decision of the owners, whether they be trustees or a private individual, under the circumstances in which they will sell. If there was a potential for huge development and, therefore, the valuer valued it on that basis, but the trustees or owners decided to sell it for another use that did not release that potential for development, of course there would be a different price. But my point of concern with the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Best, is that it would negate what trustees ought to be doing in the first place. Under the amendment, trustees would be able to hide behind the Charity Commission. Surely that is not the position we want trustees to be in. Trustees for a particular charity should be competent to run it and, where necessary, should bring in expertise. If a charity is failing or not fulfilling its original purpose, the trustees are obliged to bring on board another trustee who knows about the problem or to bring in at an early stage expert advice. To hand it over to the Charity Commission would be, in my view, a retrograde step.