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Charities Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank my noble friends Lord Hodgson and Lord Forsyth for their support. I would say to the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, that I think that we are in agreement that the solution that I have put forward for the purposes of the debate today has a lot of defects. Indeed, I say so myself and I fully recognise the wider consequences. I tabled the amendment in order to have the debate. I am not completely satisfied that the Minister’s answer, that it can be dealt with under the existing law, is correct to deal with those situations. But I am most grateful to the Minister for the further explanation he gave. I briefly referred to the point that my noble friend Lord Forsyth raised in his question to the Minister. That is the nub of the problem and it is a question of seeing whether his answer deals with the problem adequately. It has been helpful to have this debate. We will study the Minister’s words with great care. I am grateful to him for the sympathetic way in which he is approaching the problem. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment by leave withdrawn. Clause 4 [Guidance as to operation of public benefit requirement]: