Clause 6 - Royal Patriotic Fund Corporation
Armed Forces
Public Bill Committees, 24 February 2004, 10:15 am
Mr Ivor Caplin (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence; Hove, Labour)
I shall briefly introduce the clause. The hon. Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent (Hugh Robertson) is not here, but he was the only person apart from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to raise it on Second Reading. The clause provides for the property and functions of the Royal Patriotic Fund Corporation—a charitable body established under the Patriotic Fund Reorganisation Act 1903 to assist widows and other dependants of members of Her Majesty's armed forces—to be transferred to a successor body and for the corporation to be dissolved.
There are six subsections in the clause, and schedule 2 is linked to it, but I do not intend to go through them all. Subsection (1), which is the main provision, enables the Secretary of State to make an order transferring or providing for the transfer of the property, rights and liabilities of the corporation to a charity registered under the Charities Act 1993 established for the assistance of widows or widowers, children and other dependants of former members of the armed forces or reserve forces.
With those comments, I commend the clause to the Committee.