Clause 5
Charities Bill [Lords]
5:30 pm
Edward Miliband (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Cabinet Office; Doncaster North, Labour)
It is a great joy to respond on the clause, which is a bit of a rag-bag, sweeping up matter on part 1. I shall really excite the Opposition by saying that part of the clause is motivated by a desire to be compatible with the European convention on human rights. I thought that that would cause some gasps. Let me explain what the clause does, because as the hon. Member for Worthing, West said, it is not clear.
The first part of the clause, up to the end of subsection (2)(b), deals with the problem that the Recreational Charities Act 1958 makes it charitable in certain circumstances to provide recreational leisure time facilities either for the public as a whole, or for women only, but not for men only. That element of discrimination arguably makes the Act incompatible with the ECHR. Subsection (2) therefore makes it charitable to provide recreational leisure time facilities for men only as well as for women only, or for the public as a whole. The only alternative to that would have been to rule out women-only charities, which we feared could adversely affect women’s institutes, among others. In order to comply with the principle of non-discrimination, we have allowed for men-only charities. We know better than to take on the WI.