Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill [HL]

My Lords, I apologise that I have not taken part in the previous stages of this Bill, but I would like to register my strong views and my strong support for these amendments proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and supported by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Exeter and the noble Lords, Lord Low and Lord Higgins. This issue crosses all sides of the House. Like many of your Lordships, I have an interest to declare: I am a trustee of a small local charity—Hammersmith and Fulham Action on Disability, or HAFAD. It is run by and for disabled people to promote equality of opportunity, choice and independence for all disabled people by removing barriers and ensuring that support services meet the needs of disabled people in the borough. Services include a wide range of youth activities such as holiday schemes for profoundly disabled young people, help for disabled people with finding employment, welfare rights and benefits advocacy, support for people receiving direct payments for their personal assistance, and an information service. HAFAD’s funding comes from a wide variety of sources including the local authority, the National Lottery, the New Deal, and numerous charitable trusts. It is matter of constant juggling and piecing together of pockets of funding and trying to add them together to form viable projects which do not raise people’s expectations only to dash them within a few months. In other words HAFAD’s continued viability can be somewhat precarious and its reliance on the generosity of others, whether in terms of time or money, is constant. As we face the spectre of an economic downturn and a period of financial uncertainty, think what a difference finding an unclaimed asset in a dormant account left as part of a legacy might make to a charity such as HAFAD. That is what these amendments would help charities such as HAFAD to do. The reason why these amendments are particularly important for small charities such as HAFAD is their simplicity. That point seems to have been ignored by the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton of Epsom. The proposed register would mean the least amount of bureaucracy possible to enable a charity to access the funds which local people have intended it to receive. While trustees might be able to gather together various pots of money for funding a project, trying to find funding for the ongoing management of the organisation is well-nigh impossible. Small charities simply do not have the person power to trawl through bank and building society accounts trying to trace lost assets, a point which has been so eloquently put by the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Exeter. That is why this amendment is so important and why I am pleased to support the noble Baroness today. She understands the difference that small local charities, in particular, can make to people’s lives, often with very little resource. I want charities to know that the law is on their side and that this House has done everything in its power today to reunite them with the assets which are rightfully theirs.