Charities Act 2006 (Charitable Companies Audit and Group Accounts Provisions) Order 2008

The noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton, was kind enough to refer to my participation in the debates on the Charities Bill and the Companies Bill. It was a Kafkaesque experience. The Minister, reading from his brief, told us that we could not deal with accounting matters because we were dealing with company legislation. His colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Sainsbury of Turville, said, when we were dealing with the Companies Bill, that it was all to do with Home Office charity regulations. We were stuck in a situation where everybody was denying the possibility of cutting the Gordian knot. I was pleased that the Government saw the value of doing that and am even more pleased that they have put forward this order to give effect to the work that we did then. The Minister had some good news for the sector. It is terrific to hear that the thresholds will be raised. The Committee may not be aware that the Government did not accept their own report about the basic threshold level. The original Cabinet Office report that set the whole thing going suggested a basic threshold level of a minimum of £10,000. The Government then stuck in £5,000, which meant that 50,000 charities that otherwise would not have fallen under the regulatory regime fell under it. It is terrific that the Government are now going back to what they proposed about five or six years ago. As these are complex matters, I applaud the proposal to make the website understandable and accessible. Is there a timetable for the consolidation plans? The Committee may not be aware that large chunks of the 1993 Act have never been brought into effect. The whole section on fundraising is still waiting for Godot. It would be kind if we made sure that Godot finally arrived and that the 1992, 1993 and 2006 Acts were put together. I congratulate the Government on lightening the regulatory burden, which is increasingly needed in the light of the ever increasing length of the accounting SORP. We heard various Members of the Committee say that a couple of pages are added every year. I have just three questions for the Minister. First, has consultation on the legislation taken place with the ACIE, the Association of Charity Independent Examiners, which is greatly affected by it? Is it happy with the way in which it is being brought into force? Does it think that it is being done in the most effective and practical way? The second question deals with a matter of charity law which increasingly concerns me; that is, its applicability across the United Kingdom. As the Minister will recall, we had lengthy discussions about how Scotland would fit into it. Paragraph 2 of the Explanatory Note states that the order will not apply in Scotland because it is a devolved matter. Are conversations with OSCR, the Scottish charity regulator, taking place to ensure that companies of charities that operate on a cross-border basis are able to take advantage of the simplifications? It is frightfully important that proper attention is given to that, because we will not otherwise make the progress that we should in lightening the regulatory burden, which is the Government’s objective. There is talk about a new charity law for Northern Ireland. It would be helpful, since the Explanatory Notes refer to Northern Ireland, if the Minister updated us with any information that he may have about progress there, and say whether efforts will be made to correlate the provisions in this legislation with what is proposed for the Province. My third question relates to the final paragraph but two of the Explanatory Notes, which begins: "““Article 8(2) substitutes a new paragraph””." It states that, "““the duty to prepare group accounts will apply to a parent charity which is a company if the charity is not required to prepare consolidated accounts … The duty will continue to apply even if the charity chooses to prepare consolidated accounts””." I am not quite clear about which duty is being applied, if the company is already preparing the consolidated accounts in line with the duty referred to earlier in the paragraph. It may be difficult for the Minister to answer that even more technical and detailed question immediately, but if he cannot, perhaps he could write to Members of the Committee to explain what is being applied there, so that my worries at least could be dispelled. The Government are to be congratulated on bringing the order forward. It is helpful legislation. I congratulate the Minister on fulfilling the commitments that he made at the Committee stage of the Bill so many months ago.