My Lords, Amendments 26 and 27 have been proposed by Social Enterprise UK. Many of us welcome the fact that we have Clause 14 as it stands in the Bill. The proposal that there should be a full review of the Act within five years and subsequent reviews every five years thereafter is important, not least because it should concentrate the mind of the Charity Commission, which is being given extensive new powers in the Bill. By including provision for a review, we might also move away from the traditional method of developing charity law in this country, which has often been to wait for some kind of scandal to happen, have a big inquiry into it and subsequently move forward into legislation. There will always be scandals in the charity world, just as there are in the world of business, and they will always be useful implements for change, but something rather more considered would be helpful.
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For the first time in legislation, there is in this Bill a definition of social investment. Those of us who dream of reading charity legislation have a good understanding of what social investment is, but it is as yet a concept limited to very few people. The particular difficulty with social investment is that, if it is true social investment as opposed to grant-making, there will be failures and money will be lost. That is terribly hard to get across to the general public and sometimes to funders, who are horribly risk-averse. Social Enterprise UK has therefore proposed Amendments 26 and 27. Amendment 26 asks that there be an additional review carried out not only by the Minister for the Cabinet Office—who obviously has responsibility for charity legislation—but by the Chancellor, because social investment has a large financial element to it and such a review sits better within both the Cabinet Office and Treasury than just within the Cabinet Office. Clearly, the Minister for the Cabinet Office would have to retain responsibility for overseeing charity legislation, so having both departments involved in the review would be excellent. The second paragraph of the amendment proposes that, as part of that review, the Cabinet Office look at how the public understand how charitable funds are used.
Amendment 27 is rather an unusual amendment to come from an opposition Bench because it would widen the scope of a review to,
“any other areas deemed relevant by the Minister”.
That is because we think that the way in which the social investment provisions work out over the next five years—it is also a new market—may throw up different areas that need to be investigated by the Cabinet Office. It also opens up scope for the one thing to be done that is not in Clause 14: to review the performance of the Charity Commission in relation to the Bill. The Bill talks a lot about outcomes but it does not talk about reviewing the performance of the Charity Commission, which is the central, single most important factor in whether the legislation works. It is also for many of us one of the biggest concerns about this legislation. For that reason, it is not only wise but advisable that we include this additional provision to widen the scope of the review.
Having said that, I welcome Clause 14. However, if we are looking at the true purposes of the Bill, it should be widened in the ways that I am proposing. I beg to move.