New Clause 6
Charities Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Edward Miliband (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Cabinet Office; Doncaster North, Labour)
We all owe a debt to the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East for raising the issue. I have a few things to say on it.
On Second Reading, the hon. Gentleman said that his worry was prompted by the situation of the SHIELDS—supporting, helping, informing everyone with learning disabilities in Southend—parliament, an advocacy organisation of which he is a trustee. Mandy Smedley, the administrator of the SHIELDS parliament received advice from the commission that people with learning difficulties cannot be charity trustees. The commission looked into that and has confirmed that the advice given through its telephone help line was incorrect. It will be writing to her to apologise and to confirm the legal position.
I have discussed the matter raised by the hon. Gentleman with representatives of the commission since Second Reading. The commission needs to be more aware of the issue in the future and must ensure that proper guidance is given. To that end, I hope that several things happen, the first of which is that the commission will write to the hon. Gentleman and set out the position more clearly. Secondly, it will consider updating the document “Users on Board”, which is about users of charities becoming trustees, to make it absolutely clear that people with learning disabilities are not excluded from being trustees, but, indeed, encouraged to be trustees as part of its commitment to diversity. It will also look at updating other documents, including “Finding New Trustees”, to take account of such issues. The latter document will not be updated so quickly, but the commission will be making quick progress to update “Users on Board”.