Charities Bill [HL]

I support the noble Lord, Lord   Swinfen, in his Amendment No. 18. In his generous and helpful letter, the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, explained his reasoning, and that of the Government, in including ““proportionate”” but not ““fair and reasonable””. His main argument was that if the words were included in the Bill it would seem that we were trying to criticise the commission and its past behaviour. The noble Lord, Lord Swinfen, has done so and has given evidence for what he has said. Even apart from such criticism, however, I argue that the Bill is not written to please the Charity Commission—or any other authority, for that matter. That is not the Bill’s purpose. It is written, if anything, to encourage charities—large and, above all, small. If there is the slightest reason to believe that charities would be encouraged by including the words ““fair and reasonable”” in the Bill, it is a good enough reason to do so. I therefore hope that it is still possible to include these words.