New Clause 7
Charities Bill [Lords]
2:45 pm
Martin Horwood (Shadow Minister (Environment), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I may have underestimated the power and intellect behind his argument, because he is right. The weakness in my new clause is that it says that where charitable status is withdrawn from any organisation or institution
“assets...must be deployed or protected for the charitable purpose”,
but it does not specify whether those assets are charitable under the new law. If they are considered to be charitable—if they were given for an obviously beneficial, philanthropic purpose that qualifies as charitable even under the new public benefit test—what I was saying does apply and those assets would have to be deployed for a charitable purpose and could not be carried forward to the new, now non-charitable organisation. However, if those assets had been charitable, but are not now charitable because, as the hon. Gentleman said, they were given for a purpose that was deemed to be charitable in the 17th century but is not deemed to be so under the new 21st century law, there is a problem, which he has correctly identified, and I share his sentiment.