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Charities Bill [HL]

In the Joint Scrutiny Committee, one recurring theme was the need to allow   the Charity Commission to have more latitude in   the appointment of staff and particularly in the remuneration of the staff so appointed, in order to enable the commission to have at its command that quality of personnel without which, the Joint Scrutiny Committee felt, no Bill could achieve its optimum outcome. On that broad basis, I lend my support to Amendment No. 13 moved by the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson. I await with interest to hear what the Minister says about the constitutional proprieties of the amendment. I hope that, although the Treasury is now the responsible department of state for the commission, this is within the conventional arrangements—in that it will allow the commission the freedom, within their allocated budget, in terms of numbers and levels or remuneration.