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Charities Bill [HL]

I apologise if the Minister is now responding to the debate on this group of amendments. I planned to say a word or two only to express unhappiness with the group of amendments. Two wrongs do not make a right in that regard. I am aware of the fact that when there is a set of corporate charities—parent and subsidiaries—they already amalgamate their accounts under the relevant legislation. Whatever the merits of that, there are more de-merits. In particular, mixing charities and non-charities is like mixing oil and water. They are subject to different legal regimes and, rather than casting light on their affairs, they are more likely to mislead. The present arrangement, whereby a charitable trust has a set of companies of which it is the owner, is adequately dealt with by means of notes and transparency in the account of the parent non-corporate charity. Not everyone thinks that this is a bright idea and I wished to put that on the record.