Clause 7
Charities Bill [Lords]
9:30 am
Tom Levitt (PPS (Rt Hon Hilary Benn, Secretary of State), Department for International Development; High Peak, Labour)
As I recall, the hon. Gentleman asked me about mergers during an intervention on Second Reading. I repeat the point that I made then. Although I am all in favour of the legislation making appropriate mergers easier, I am worried about encouraging mergers, because the voluntary and charitable sectors resent it when the direction of travel is imposed from outside. I hope that the legislation will remain neutral: facilitating mergers, not encouraging or hinting that they ought to be the order of the day.