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Charities Bill [Lords]

Either my hon. Friend is thinking along the same lines as me or he has been reading the proceedings in Committee, where I raised that very point. In Committee, the Minister told me that clause 2(3)(a), which covers what religion includes, can include matters besides those listed in sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii). I hope that that is clear—that explanation was clear enough for my satisfaction at the time. In an earlier intervention, my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) pointed out that subsection (2)(e) refers to ““citizenship or community development””. In this day and age, I do not think it possible to discuss citizenship without discussing belief systems and, indeed, the beliefs that underlie those systems. I therefore think that an organisation that is involved in citizenship or community development from an explicitly and specifically non-religious point of view could justify its charitable status under subsection (2)(e). Subsection (2)(h) relates to the point raised by the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon. As"““the advancement of human rights””" is included as a purpose in the Bill, I therefore presume that that includes article 9(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998. Even if that point were not covered, subsection (2)(m) refers to"““any other purposes within subsection (4)””," which includes"““any purposes that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to, or within the spirit of, any purposes falling within any of those paragraphs…above””." Surely a non-religious organisation, in so far as it is all about beliefs and the advancement of those beliefs, is analogous to a religious organisation. Those provisions would allow a non-religious organisation to have its purposes acknowledged as charitable.