Charities Bill [HL]

We debated the amendment on 23 February. Thinking back, I think that we must have debated a lot on 23 February; we have had a lot of references to it today. I shall pretty much repeat what I said then, word for word. I am sorry that that is the case, but I cannot see that things have changed at all since. The Charity Appeal Tribunal will provide a less formal means of challenging the decisions of the Charity Commission than pursuing a case in the High Court. That is accepted. It is intended that appellants would be able to represent themselves in person should they wish to do so, although the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, thinks that there will be instances where it is necessary for them to employ lawyers to do the work of the charity. As I said before, the table in Schedule 4 is not only simpler but clearer about which Charity Commission decisions would be subject to appeal, who would be able to submit an appeal in each case, and the powers of the tribunal in relation to those decisions. We decided on a course of action that sets out how we feel that the mechanism will work, rather than leaving it open-ended. We think it best that way. Members of the Committee are right that it would have been possible to group some of the decisions together, but we think that the table, with the decisions listed in the order in which they appear in the Charities Act 1993, is clearer than the proposed amendments. It will provide the opportunity for a lay person to identify whether the decision about which they are concerned falls within the jurisdiction of the tribunal.