Charities Bill [HL]

The noble Lord carried forward the argument that I was on the point of making: that the South Place Ethical Society was given charitable status, as he correctly says, not because it advances education but because by analogy—it reels off the cases: Re Price, Re Hood, Re Scowcroft; well known cases in this field—it was charitable under the fourth head as promoting the moral and spiritual welfare or improvement of the community. It does not matter one whit whether one obtains charitable status on that basis or if it is a conventional religion under the religious heading. There is no difference. There is no extra hurdle to be leaped in getting charitable status on that basis. That is why I believe that the Bill moves the whole thing on and why I do not believe that the amendments will help at all. Finally, many Members are aware of the Scientology case. After a particularly difficult application to the commission, the commission produced an extremely long and, I believe, well reasoned judgment, which was getting on for some 50 pages, in the course of which it said that,"““the Commission has regarded the concept of moral or spiritual welfare or improvement as a flexible basis upon which a wide range of purposes beneficial to the public may by analogy be recognised as charitable, particularly where it was apparent that the benefit flowing from the organisations’ purposes and activities is readily and easily accessible to the public””." The noble Lord, Lord Borrie, will recollect the case of Public Concern at Work, in which he was involved as chairman of the trustees and I as the solicitor. Eventually we got registration on the basis of the flexible head. As I say, I would have taken a different view but for the public benefit introduction in the Bill. But given that it is coming, there is a solid, well established, broad-based and flexible ground on which all the organisations engaged in ethical issues—rationality and the rest of it—can find their charitable status.