Clause 38
Charities Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Martin Horwood (Shadow Minister (Environment), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat)
I am impressed by the hon. Member for Isle of Wight’s search for loopholes in the legislation, and I am quite impressed that the Government are still finding one or two typos in the legislation, despite 70 hours of parliamentary scrutiny, and scrutiny by some of the most eminent charity lawyers in the land. One of the hon. Gentleman’s two amendments may deal with a loophole, but not amendment No. 28. I cannot understand why the additional power is needed for charitable incorporated organisations, as all charitable incorporated organisations are charities. By definition, therefore, the powers set out in new section 73D of the Charities Act 1993 will also apply to charity incorporated organisations, and they will not have different books to be audited. As far as I can tell, amendment No. 28 is unnecessary, but I look forward to the Minister’s comments on it.
The hon. Member for Isle of Wight may well have found a loophole with amendment No. 122. I look forward to the Minister’s comments on it, because at the moment the commission seems to be the sole holder of the power to relieve trustees and auditors from breach of trust or duty on the part of CIOs. The courts may well have been missed out of that process. I view that amendment sympathetically.