Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 95:"Page 56, line 33, leave out paragraph (a) and insert—" ““(a)   each of the holders is or was a trustee of a charity which is not a body corporate;”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, before I start, I should offer an apology to the noble Earl, Lord Caithness. I fancy that he will not know why we thought that the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, had a good point, but I will explain it to him later. We believe that these amendments improve Clause 54, which makes provision for a simple process to transfer a public collection certificate between trustees of an unincorporated charity. Under the clause as drafted, the holder of a public collections certificate must be a trustee of the charity and consent to the transfer. However, it was pointed out to us during the Summer Recess that, under the clause as drafted, problems could arise where a holder of the certificate resigned or retired as a trustee and a significant period of time then elapsed before the appointment of a replacement trustee. In such a case, the holder would no longer be a trustee of the charity, and it may be difficult to obtain the consent of that holder of the certificate to transfer it to a new holder. It would also be possible for the holder of a certificate to withhold consent as a result of an unrelated dispute with the other trustees. These amendments remove such potential blockages and difficulties, while maintaining the principle that the proposed new holder must consent to the transfer. They also require the charity’s trustees rather than the charity to consent to the transfer. I hope that your Lordships will accept these sensible and practical amendments. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.