Charities Bill [HL]

My Lords, I strongly support the tenor of the amendment. We spent a lot of time earlier in the Bill’s passage trying to decide by what principles the Charity Commission should undertake its general duties. The House will remember that we came up with an amendment that talked about the Charity Commission operating in a proportionate, accountable, consistent, transparent and targeted way. However, none of that applies to the regulations issued by the Secretary of State under Section 42 of the Charities Act 1993, which is being amended. It seems to me for all the reasons so ably set out by the noble Lords, Lord Hodgson and Lord Sainsbury, that we need something very like this amendment. I urge the Government to be sympathetic to it, because it affects every charity of any size and causes huge headache, frustration and extra cost if the SORP regulations are disproportionate.