Clause 3
Charities Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Edward Miliband (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Cabinet Office; Doncaster North, Labour)
That is correct to an extent. I do not think that my right hon. Friend was in his place when I said it, but is important to restate the point that purposes under clause 2(2) can be for the public benefit but are not necessarily so. The public benefit test is applied by specifically examining the individual charity and seeing whether it benefits a sufficient section of the public.
To illustrate that important point, I shall quote from the case of IRC v. Baddeley. Lord Somervell of Harrow, talking about a charitable trust, said:
“There might well be a valid trust for the promotion of religion benefiting a very small class. It would not follow at all that a recreation ground for the exclusive use of the same class would be a valid charity”.
The point I am making is that there is a general public benefit test: a sufficient section of the community must be benefited. That test is then specifically applied, and has been applied by the courts—there is a bedrock of common law on the matter—in different cases in different ways. My right hon. Friend looks quizzical, so I shall give way to him.