Schedule 1
Charities Bill [Lords]
6:00 pm
Tom Levitt (PPS (Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State), Department for International Development; High Peak, Labour)
By an inadvertent slip of the tongue, I think, the hon. Gentleman suggested that under the Bill, the commission will have a minimum of four members. If he looks at the schedule, he will see that it will have a chairman and four members, so the minimum number will be five.
Although all of us are potential beneficiaries of charitable services in one form or another—citizens advice bureaux, for example, could benefit everyone—is the hon. Gentleman not stating the obvious by specifying such a measure in his amendment? No Minister would put forward the names of people who were not representative or potential beneficiaries. Is he not guilty once again of the Cheltenham principle in tabling an amendment that is harmless if not entirely necessary?