Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Lord McFall of Alcluith (Labour), on Thursday, 15 May 2008, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 94 members in total.

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CHARITIES AND UNCLAIMED ASSETS IN DORMANT ACCOUNTS

That this House congratulates over 50 charities for coming together to form the Unclaimed Assets Charity Coalition; notes that legacies are increasingly important to charities and constitute almost 50 per cent. of some charities' voluntary income; further notes that evidence received by the Treasury Committee indicates that there are hundreds of millions of pounds in unclaimed assets; further notes that some legacies are incomplete because of unclaimed assets left in dormant accounts which charities find difficult to identify and access; acknowledges that a register of dormant accounts would resolve this problem in a more efficient and secure way than the online tracing scheme recently created by the banks, buildings societies and National Savings and Investment (NS&I); welcomes the fact that the well-respected law firm, Withers LLP, has provided legal advice, since shared with Ministers, on the feasibility of a register; further notes that registers work in the United States and other countries without fraud, using only publicly available information; and urges the Government to ensure people's dying wishes to leave money to charity are respected completely by the inclusion in the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill of a reserve power for the creation of a register of dormant accounts, to be used should banks', building societies' and the NS&I's efforts to reunite charities with the entirety of legacies bequeathed to them, and thus money that is rightfully theirs, continue to prove inadequate.

Amendments

The Early day motion has received an amendment.

CHARITIES AND UNCLAIMED ASSETS IN DORMANT ACCOUNTS (1581A1)

The Early day motion has received an amendment sponsored by Martyn Jones (primary, Labour) and tabled on Friday, 20 June 2008. It has been signed by 2 members in total.

after `information;', insert `further notes that a central register would better serve the data protection interests of individual customers;'.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

1581 

1581A1 

Session

2007-08

Other sponsors

Peter Bottomley

Jeremy Browne

Julie Kirkbride

Nigel Evans

Andrew George

Subjects

Charities Financial services Financial institutions

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk