Charities Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question. Charities which merge will want to make arrangements for their liabilities. If, for whatever reason, there is an unforeseen liability which cannot be met in any other way, it is possible to use funds held as permanent endowment. The noble Lord will know more than me, but my understanding is that that is permitted by Section 31 of the Trustee Act 2000. We do not see that any difficulty will arise as a result of the merger arrangements. It also seems to me that there is a question about whether the new charity formed from the transfer is liable and whether the funds of that charity should be used before recourse is made to the residual permanent endowment charity. I think that that is a slightly more complex question. I am more than happy to write to the noble Lord giving further chapter and verse on that, because I think it is a valuable point to explore and set out. On Question, amendment agreed to.