Charities Bill [HL]

I think that my noble friend was concerned with the credibility of the whole charity system so long as it allows certain—let me not name any—schools to be regarded as charities when any common use of the language would strike people who did not know about the law or the history of this as an amazing concept. Although I particularly favoured the speech of my noble friend—naturally—I also appreciated the other speeches. In talking about the school in Guildford with which he is connected, the noble Earl, Lord Onslow, said that when it ceased to be a state school there was created a monetary hurdle to social mobility. I entirely agree with him. The extent to which these difficulties are partially made up by bursaries is fully in line with the points I made. If bursaries are provided, it is one way in which a school can properly demonstrate that, although it is a fee-paying school and the highest proportion of its pupils come from privileged families, none the less, it gives something to the community. I say to my noble friend—if I may call him that—the noble Lord, Lord Brooke, in referring to some of   the points that his colleague the noble Lord, Lord   MacGregor, made earlier, neither I nor my noble friend Lord Campbell-Savours has disputed that parents should be free to send their children to fee-paying schools. Nor has one disputed the benefits and the fiscal points that have been made. But that is a different matter from a particular. The noble Lord talked about fee-paying schools collectively, but that does not deal with the point that each particular school claiming to have a charitable purpose has to provide some public benefit under the new law, even without my amendment. My amendment would simply give the Charity Commission guidance, which would otherwise have no parliamentary guidance at all. I take the simple view that it is rather odd that Parliament, which is debating charities for the first time in a long time—apart from the immediate period before the election—has no role in determining what kinds of things should be provided by schools, in this instance, to demonstrate pubic benefit, but that that should be left to the discretion of the ladies and gentlemen of the Charity Commission. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 9 not moved.] Clause 3 agreed to. Clause 4 [Guidance as to operation of public benefit requirement]: