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Third Sector Review

I am delighted to have the opportunity to make a few comments in this afternoon's important debate, not least because, by the end of our discussion, a total of five Labour and Co-operative Members will have either spoken or intervened. That is no accident because those of us who come from the Co-operative as well as the Labour tradition have at the heart of our political philosophy the Co-operative ideal of self-help and communities working together to address the needs of their society and area. It is therefore unsurprising that we have an interest in how to extend community self-help, which is behind the thinking in the review. Like, I am sure, all hon. Members, I am fortunate in having a wide range of campaigning and non-governmental organisations—charities and non-charities—active in my constituency. The headquarters of large, campaigning NGOs, such as Friends of the Earth Scotland, is in my constituency. The headquarters of organisations that provide valuable support to charities and NGOs on the ground are also based my area. They include Citizens Advice Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations. I believe that all their staff are full time, but their work assists tens of thousands of volunteers who work in communities in Scotland. To echo a point that was made earlier, it is dangerous to pick out the number of full-time staff in organisations because that does not always take due account of the work of those organisations. Hon. Members may have noticed that I am wearing in my lapel a poppy from the Poppyscotland appeal, which was launched yesterday in the Scotland Office in Dover house. I am fortunate to have the Poppyscotland headquarters and its poppy factory in my constituency. That is just a snapshot of some of the headquarters and national organisations that are based in my constituency. I would not even dream of picking out too many local organisations, for fear, apart from anything else, of perhaps offending those that I did not mention. Like all of us, if I were to list the local organisations active in my constituency, we would be here well beyond the 6 o'clock deadline and probably well into tomorrow. I once tried to count how many people were involved in local activity in the third sector in my constituency. I estimated the figure to be certainly well over 10,000, and probably 20,000, with 1,000 to 1,500 organisations, illustrating how much the work of community organisations and the third sector is at the heart of community life and society in all our constituencies. Community organisations provide a vital role, as all hon. Members know, not just in delivering community services and assisting in their provision, but in giving voice to communities defined by both geography and interest. In many cases, community organisations also help to re-establish some of the basic social bonds that have broken down or to build those bonds that have never been established in the first place. Such organisations play a vital role, and I am sure that we have all experienced that in our constituencies. Many of the policy areas affecting the third sector in Scotland are devolved. I will not take up the House's time by talking in detail about issues that do not fall within the responsibility of the Minister and the UK Government. There are, however, a number of important areas in which what the Government have done is of great benefit to third sector organisations in my constituency, just as I am sure it will be to organisations in the constituency of the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Hywel Williams) and hon. Members from other constituencies outside England. Mention has been made of gift aid. Unlike the right hon. Member for Horsham (Mr. Maude), I continue to believe that gift aid is a wonderful support for charities. Without that innovation, introduced by the Government, many charities would not be able to do the kind of work that they do. I pay tribute to what has already been achieved not only by gift aid, but in trying to respond to the concerns raised by charities about how gift aid schemes operate. I was intrigued by the suggestion that the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker) made to make it even simpler for charities to make use of the gift aid regime. I saw the Minister nodding away enthusiastically when the suggestion was made. I am not sure how far his nodding was a commitment on behalf of the Government—perhaps he is not nodding now; I do not know—but the suggestion was certainly interesting. I suspect that it would probably be of particular benefit to small charities that have not started to make use of gift aid, perhaps because they feel that any bureaucracy is too much extra work to bear, so I hope that the Minister will take up that suggestion.