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Charities Bill [HL]

The amendment would provide a deemed confirmation regime if the commission fails or refuses to confirm the resolution within the stated period of six months. The amendment will not work as intended. First, its effect would be that even if the commission refused confirmation within the six month period, the resolution would take effect anyway at the end of the period. Secondly, the operation of new section 69L(8) is dependent on confirmation by the commission of the resolution. I am confident that in most cases the commission could confirm such a resolution within a six-month period, but undoubtedly there will be cases with complex circumstances where it would not be possible for it to meet the deadline. The issues that arise in a transfer of undertakings under new Section 69L may be complex and require considerable discussion, and it would be wrong to tie the commission to a completion date of six months regardless of the circumstances. The risk of imposing such a deadline on the commission is that in complex cases it would be forced into the position of refusing to confirm a resolution once the deadline approached, if by that time it had been unable to resolve all the issues satisfactorily. That said, I have some sympathy with the noble Lord’s intention and am agreeable to considering it further. We would want to provide the commission with the ability to extend such a deadline where it had reasonable grounds to do so; for example, in complex cases where further discussions would be required. So if the noble Lord is happy with that commitment on my part, I invite him to withdraw his amendment.