Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 112: "Page 74, line 5, leave out ““an Act”” and insert—" ““(a)   a single Act, or (b)   a group of two or more Acts,”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, this is the last group of amendments. I shall speak also to the five other amendments grouped with Amendment No. 112. All the amendments relate to a possible consolidation of charity law. A long time ago, at the beginning of the debates on the Bill, there was a heartfelt plea for consolidation—it was probably made by the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, who seems to be putting his hand up. It was a popular cause. The Bill contains a power to make pre-consolidation amendments of the enactments relating to charities. However, as drafted, it allows for the possibility of only one consolidation Act. Amendments Nos. 112, 114 and 115 allow for the possibility of more than one consolidation Act. We have not decided that we would like to have more than one, and the amendments are not supposed to indicate that that is necessarily our proposed course of action. However, there is at least a possibility that more than one consolidation Act might be desirable; for example, one Act covering public charitable collections and another covering everything else. It is better to err on the side of caution and to allow for that possibility, ensuring that if more than one consolidation is required the Secretary of State has a power to make pre-consolidation amendments. Amendment No. 113 is simply a drafting correction suggested by parliamentary counsel, and Amendments Nos. 113 and 116 define more precisely the enactments to which the Secretary of State could make pre-consolidation amendments. Clause 74 already defines the enactments relating to charities in general terms, but we now believe that it would be better to define more precisely which enactments we are talking about. Those two amendments achieve that objective. I beg to move.