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Equality Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have some sympathy with the concerns expressed in the noble Baroness’s amendment. Here, and in one or two further issues that are to be raised, we are entering the world of civil society organisations and in particular, as the noble Baroness pointed out, of small charities, of which people in my position are frequently patrons and seek to be supporters. Very often not only are such organisations working on minimum funding arrangements but their trustees are local people who give their time voluntarily. We need to get on the inside of the way in which those organisations field these issues; we shall come to subsequent issues in a minute, but they need some comfort on these matters. Whether or not the amendment achieves that appropriately, we need to hear the concern that lies behind it, because I know bodies of trustees of small organisations who will be anxious.