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Charities Bill [Lords]

No, I have not got any such evidence. I have given the example—there are others—of organisations that have been excluded from charitable status because of the way in which they behave. There are other arguments relating to the Charity Commission’s interpretative paper—shall I say—on how it might exercise its discretion. The position paper, ““Public Benefit: the Charity Commission’s approach”” is secular in tone and states that public benefit must be assessed"““in the light of modern conditions””" and that keeping up with ““modern society”” is required if a charity is not to have its charitable status revoked. Some religions are quite concerned because they are trying to advance a better world than modern society. If they are to keep up with modern society, in many cases that will mean that they are not to aspire to a higher level, but to descend to a lower level than the ideal. I have been given the example of a Muslim group that may oppose abortion on the grounds of Islamic teaching. There is also the example of the Scottish chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain being forced out of office from the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations because he stated orthodox Muslim views on sexual morality. I am concerned that those modern interpretations will be embraced by the Charity Commission and used as a means of reducing the accessibility of religious organisations to charitable status.