Charities Bill [HL]

Noble Lords are right; we discussed and debated this issue back on 14 March at col. 419. At that time the Bill required the commission when making a cy-près scheme to have regard for the need for charities to make a significant social or economic impact. As has been said, several noble Lords spoke against the concept and we have listened to those arguments. As a result, we have amended the Bill. In the Bill that we have introduced this Session, one of the matters to which the commission must have regard when making a cy-près scheme is,"““the need for the relevant charity to have purposes which are suitable and effective in the light of current social and economic circumstances””." We believe that that is more flexible than the previous wording. The requirement is in terms of the new purposes being ““suitable and effective””, which is wording already used in the Charities Act 1993 in relation to cy-près schemes. The commission is simply required to take into account the current social and economic circumstances when considering whether proposed new purposes will be suitable and effective. That would allow the commission to be more accommodating to the differences between charities. It requires the commission to consider the circumstances of the present day when making a scheme to take the charity forward, without requiring the charity to be able to make a significant social and economic impact. I do not see that a requirement for the commission to assess whether purposes will be suitable and effective,"““in the light of current circumstances””," could be problematic. The noble Lords, Lord Phillips and Lord Hodgson, may not entirely agree with where we have moved on this issue, but we can fairly say that we have listened to concerns and tried to improve on what was in the original Bill.