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Charities Bill

It is a great privilege to wind up this debate. It has been an excellent debate with some thoughtful contributions from Members on both sides of the House, and we have seen the House of Commons at its best. A spirit of charity has abounded, not only in the praise for my right hon. Friend and myself from my hon. Friend the Member for Selby (Mr. Grogan), but in the offer by the hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr. Mitchell) to be the campaign manager for my right hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Mr. Milburn) in any future election that might take place. The hon. Gentleman promised to do for my right hon. Friend what he did for the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis), so I am not sure how the offer will be regarded. As Members on both sides have said, it is more than 400 years since the 1601 preamble to the Charitable Uses Act. The Bill has been a long time coming, and that creates an added pressure to achieve consensus. Fortunately, the Bill gets it right. That is partly because it has been well prepared, having its origins in the 2002 strategy unit report; well scrutinised, thanks to the work by the Committee chaired by my right hon. Friend the Member for Darlington; and well debated, with 60 hours in the other place so far on two separate occasions. I look forward to the further deliberations in Committee. The central purpose of the Bill is to put in place a framework for charities and their activities that will enable them to realise their potential, encourage a vibrant and diverse sector and sustain high levels of public confidence. The Bill contributes to that through a streamlined system of law for charity organisation and regulation, a new and consistent approach to regulation of fundraising, and a clear definition of charity, with every organisation having to prove public benefit, all underpinned by an effective, modern regulator in the shape of the Charity Commission. I shall deal with the important contributions that have been made to the debate under those four headings. On the issue of administration and regulation, the Bill takes important steps, not only in the new charitable incorporated organisation, but the raising of the registration threshold from £1,000 to £5,000, the raising of the audit threshold and several other sensible measures. Hon. Members on both sides raised questions of administration and local examples of charities and how they organised themselves. I was especially struck by the contribution from the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East (James Duddridge), who talked about people with learning disabilities and their role as trustees. My understanding, and that of the Charity Commission, is that trustee bodies should be diverse and properly reflect the interests of beneficiaries. People with learning disabilities are absolutely able to be trustees of charities and there should be no difficulty for them in being so. If the hon. Gentleman wishes to write to me further on that, I would be happy to respond. The hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield, as well as making his generous offer to my right hon. Friend the Member for Darlington, raised several important points. He mentioned the status of armed forces charities and I hope that he is pleased that their charitable purpose is confirmed in the Bill. On the specific issue that he raised about the status of those charities, I have to say that it is hard in the circumstances to strike the right balance between the regulation that we need to achieve a level playing field, and the particular demands of certain charities. The position on armed forces charities is the same as for other excepted charities. They will need to fulfil the requirements made of them, but they are already subject to regulation by the Charity Commission. The only new requirement will be to register and even then only if they have an income of more than £100,000. We have said that that figure will not change before we complete the five-year review of the Bill.