Charities Bill [HL]

I hate to break ranks on this, but I am not entirely persuaded about increasing the   figure for registrations from £5,000 to £10,000. Registration is rather different from some of the other limits—for audits and so on. I think that we all said at different points during our debates in February and March that maintaining the probity of the sector was an overriding demand or requirement, because loss of public faith in charity is infectious and one of the great glories of the system at present is that the word ““charity”” still resonates extremely positively almost everywhere. Given the simplicity of the reporting and accounting regime for charities with an income of, let us say, £5,000 a year, I do not see why one should raise that threshold by 100 per cent, or at all. As the noble Lord, Lord   Hodgson, said, a charity with an income of £5,000 can have capital of £100,000. That may be small fry compared with Oxfam or Save the Children, but it is a lot of money for a small, local charity. Sometimes, slapdash and, occasionally, worse than slapdash, conduct can almost be encouraged by the sense that they are outside the regulatory net—they are not even registered as a charity. These days, it is not a great hassle to get registered—unless you have unusual objects—and it is not a hassle, once registered, if you are small, to keep the show on the road. So I must confess that I am not persuaded—I am persuadable but not persuaded.