Charities Bill [HL]

My Lords, this was discussed at various meetings of the pre-legislative scrutiny committee. I see that there are five of us in your Lordships’ Chamber who sat on that committee, so if I am wrong I know that I will be taken to task immediately. Two things in particular struck us: first, the number of small charities—the great proportion of charities are small—and, secondly, the huge difference between a recipient charity and a donor charity. When we came to examine evidence from the Charity Commission and the Home Office, I was not sure that they had fully understood the significance of that. That is why I support my noble friend. What my noble friend Lord Sainsbury is of great concern. As a trustee of a heritage charity, I would much prefer to receive my money from a grant-giving charity than from gift aid because, as my noble friend said, there is a continuity there which there is not with gift aid. With a small charity, fund raising is slightly easier when you know that you can go to certain charities and where their interests are listed in the charity books rather than going to specific donors for gift aid. If, following the logic of what my noble friend said, the SORP regulations and other regulations that have been introduced are reducing the willingness of people who have the ability—thank goodness that this country has people with the ability to create grant-giving trusts—to stop them doing so would be a hugely detrimental step. I go back to that evidence that we received. It was not encouraging that there was sufficient flexibility in the commission and the Home Office to take account of those big differences. That is why it is so important to have something like this in the Bill and I support my noble friend’s amendment.