Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 32:"Page 11, line 37, leave out ““£5,000”” and insert ““£10,000””" The noble Lord said: My Lords, we come to the first of a series of amendments we have tabled which seek to reduce the regulatory burden for both charities and the Charity Commission, and to make the framework of charity law more easily comprehensible by charity trustees. This amendment seeks to raise the level at which a charity must register with the commission, from £5,000 to £10,000 per annum. I want the Committee to note that I use the word ““must”” not ““may””. This was not the case in the original Bill. There, the Charity Commission could refuse to register a charity if its annual income was below £5,000. This was clearly wrong. If a charity, any charity, wants to register with the Charity Commission, it should be able to do so. We tabled amendments to ensure that this would happen by changing ““may”” to ““must”” in line 25 on page 12 of the Bill. We were extremely grateful to the Government for accepting that amendment. There are many reasons why even the smallest charity might want to be registered—notably that many grant-giving charities and local authorities will give grants only to charities that are registered. But why should small charities have to register? Equally important, what risk is there if they do not? At an annual income of £5,000, a charity will have total assets of just over £100,000, if they are all invested at the current benchmark gilt rate. That is a ludicrously small sum at which to require a charity to be registered. No one can argue that such charities present any systemic risk to the charitable sector or public confidence in charities generally. So, for once, let us take a positive step to lift the regulatory burden. In Grand Committee, I argued that the minimum threshold should be lifted to £25,000. I accept that that did not find favour with the Committee, but the noble Lord, Lord Shutt of Greetland, whom I am now sorry to see in his place, said that he would be tempted to support a figure of £10,000. So here is temptation. I beg to move.