Clause 20
Charities Bill [Lords]
12:30 pm
Andrew Turner (Shadow Minister (Charities), Home Affairs; Isle of Wight, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 35, in clause 20, page 21, line 1, leave out
‘the Commission considers to be expedient in the interests’
and insert
‘is necessary for the protection of the property’.
The amendment is straightforward. It would remove the power of the commission to do all sorts of things that it might think expedient in the interests of the charity, and instead restrict the power to things that the commission considers necessary for the protection of the charity’s property, which is more or less the position under section 19 of the 1993 Act. I do not really understand the case for broadening the commission’s power. The commission would be given a fairly broad power in place of a fairly narrow one and the power would be exercisable before the outcome of any inquiry. The commission would not have to wait for the inquiry before deciding what to do, whereas later parts of the Bill provide for the commission to do things following the outcome of an inquiry.