Charities Bill [HL]

I want briefly to intervene because my colleagues and former colleagues in the House of Commons should closely watch the debate that takes place in this Committee on these matters over the next few days and weeks. This issue will become central to consideration of the Bill in the House of Commons. I would like to press this amendment on my colleagues in the other place, because while the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, used the words he used in the previous debate in Committee, to put beyond doubt the right of the Charity Commission, I read it a little more strongly. The amendment reads,"““In carrying out such consultation in relation to charities which charge for their services, the Commission shall consider the extent””." Many elected Members of Parliament will want to see   the word ““shall”” because—if I may be frank—they are not altogether confident that the Charity Commission has either the will or the bottle to confront organisations which claim charitable status and which are the beneficiaries of tax concessions. I suspect that elected Members of Parliament will want to feel that somewhere enshrined in the law there is a duty on the Charity Commission to do something, more clearly set out in the amendment than in the legislation that we are being asked to approve. Finally, I would say to my honourable friends in the other House when they are considering this debate, that they should know that the noble Lord, Lord   Phillips, who has moved the amendment, is a practitioner in law and specialises in this area of the law. He specialises in charity law and brings to our debates his specialist knowledge, and I think that they would do well to consider that and take that into account when they are asked to consider these amendments at a later stage.