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Charities Bill

The hon. Gentleman made that point earlier. It was not very good then and it is not very good now. I refute that facile intervention. We support the Bill and there will be no Division on it tonight. I am calling on the Minister to provide maximum clarity, especially in relation to the Charity Commission guidelines, on the system under which charitable organisations will operate once the Bill becomes law. The common cry from the House has been for clarity. Secondly, we are concerned about the independence of the new Charity Commission, which will be a powerful body. As other hon. Members have pointed out, its track record is not of the highest order. We agree that it should be independent of Government. I remember a thousand years ago, when I was a Minister in the Lord Chancellor’s Department, we had a big public debate about whether legal aid should be granted in several high profile cases. I called in the chief executive of the Legal Aid Board and, flexing my muscles, said, ““I want things to change.”” He looked at me and said, ““You have no power over me whatever. Who on earth do you think you are? I will carry on doing as I have always done.”” In my opinion we have too many quangos that are not properly accountable. I know that it is fashionable to say that politicians should not make decisions and that we should delegate them to other organisations, but we have gone too far down that path and it is time to counter-attack and make many more of those organisations accountable to Ministers, who are accountable to Parliament. I may be a lone voice on that point, but that is how I feel. I feel a lot better now that I have got that off my chest. The new beefed-up Charity Commission will not be accountable to Ministers. I accept that it must be independent of Government, but our suggestion of making it accountable to a Select Committee is very sensible. I hope that the Minister will consider it carefully. All Members of Parliament inform themselves about the quality of charitable activity in their constituencies— we are experts in that—so it is a sensible suggestion. We are concerned about the current lack of independence and accountability of that organisation. Thirdly, we have heard much about partnership between the charitable sector and Government. Of course, that can work really well, but over the past few years we have seen that a charitable organisation may have tremendous success, because it performs its functions in its own way, but once it enters into a contract or relationship with the Government it slowly has the life squeezed out of it by red tape and bureaucracy. If that happens, the organisation can cease to be successful because of too much prescription by the Government. I place a marker to warn the voluntary sector and the Government that although we all want such partnerships, they must not lose the very aspects that make the organisations successful in the first place. Parts of the Bill will increase regulation and parts will reduce it. The Bill was an opportunity to set charities free, but it has not been properly seized. In particular, the £5,000 limit should be increased, and I hope that the Minister will consider that point. We want clarity on the public benefit test, greater accountability for the Charity Commission, and a light-touch, flexible regulatory regime that genuinely empowers, enables and supports the wonderful, unparalleled spirit of charity and compassion of the great British people to arise, shine and be even more productive in the future. We support the Government’s direction of travel, but we will seek to improve the Bill in Committee.