Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 99:"Page 59, line 42, after ““application”” insert ““within the prescribed period””" The noble Lord said: My Lords, under the Bill at present there is no specified period within which a local authority must determine an application for a permit to collect in a public place. Our concern is to ensure that a decision is made sufficiently in advance of the date of the proposed collection as not to frustrate the planning and organisation of the collection. The amendment will achieve that. It is a simple amendment that will allow us to prescribe in regulations the period within which a local authority must determine such an application. The Bill already provides for application periods to be prescribed in regulations, as we have discussed in previous debates. Those regulations will be subject to full consultation, to ensure that the views of charities, local authorities and other interested stakeholders are properly taken into account. Our aim is for the resultant application periods, and now the period for determination of a permit, to be workable in practice. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to. Clause 73 [Amendments, repeals and transitional provisions]: