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Charities Bill [HL]

My response to the noble Lord, Lord Swinfen, is much as it will be to the noble Lord, Lord Shutt. We have got a fair consensus and measure of agreement about where those thresholds should fall, which is why they have been built into the legislation and framed in the way in which they are. We have given a clear commitment to a review of the thresholds a year after the legislation is put in place. That is the time, I suggest, that the points made by the   noble Lord, Lord Swinfen, should be properly considered as part of a review. It is also the time when it may be right and appropriate to take a fresh view of thresholds. I have quite a measure of sympathy with the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Shutt. A lot of those thresholds hang around for a long time. Matters of self interest, such as councillors’ expenses and so forth, never seem to catch up with inflation. But the noble Lord made the point better than I am. My answer is that we should stick with what has been agreed. Where there is a consensus let us have a review; let us conduct it more broadly perhaps than we are thinking today; and let us stick to the timetable that we have set out for the review vis-à-vis the legislation.