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Charities Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 49:"Page 142, leave out lines 7 to 10 and insert—" ““““(8)   The Comptroller and Auditor General shall send to the Commission a copy of the accounts as certified by him together with his report on them. (9)   The Commission shall publish and lay before Parliament a copy of the documents sent to it under subsection (8) above.”””” The noble Lord said: My Lords, the Official Custodian for Charities is currently an officer of the Charity Commission who acts as holder of certain charity assets. For example, when in the course of an investigation the commission concludes that charity assets are at sufficient risk to warrant their removal from the trustees who hold them, the commission may transfer them to the Official Custodian. The Official Custodian’s accounts are examined and certified each year by the Comptroller and Auditor General. This minor amendment simply removes from the Comptroller and Auditor General and gives to the Charity Commission the task of laying the Official Custodian’s accounts before Parliament. That is consistent with the Bill giving the commission the task of laying its own annual report before Parliament and, because of that, I think that this is an extremely good idea. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.