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Assistance to Communities

I am grateful for that fascinating intervention. I will read it carefully in Hansard tomorrow. The hon. Gentleman seems to be suggesting that there is a compassionate charitable side and a state power side, and never the twain shall meet—one shall not influence the other. It is about influence. No one is suggesting that the third sector should run the country, but it has the right—and, indeed the obligation—to seek to influence how it is run. That is the heart of the issue. I welcome what the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood said in another Committee on which we served together a few weeks ago, and which dealt with a statutory instrument on exempt charities. I have praised him once and will praise him again for taking the right line on that matter and for welcoming the Government's initiative under the Charities Act 2006 to move away from the concept of exempt charities, which undermines the status of charities. Was the hon. Gentleman a little surprised to hear, therefore, that the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove) was trying to put the original clause 42 back in the Children, Schools and Families Bill? The exempt charity ruling was rightly removed from the Bill by the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, because it was unnecessary to the achievement of the good things in the Bill. The only reason for putting it back would be to remove the public benefit test from independent schools. That test was refined in the 2006 Act and, as I recall, it had widespread support. I do not understand why the hon. Member for Surrey Heath wanted to put the exempt charities provision back in the Bill, as it went totally against the advice of the hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood.