New Clause 8
Charities Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Martin Horwood (Shadow Minister (Environment), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Cheltenham, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
I am grateful for that reminder, Mr. Gale, and I shall do my best to comply with it. The new clause is designed to place on a statutory basis the institution of the independent complaints reviewer. The office already exists, but the new clause would facilitate significant alterations to the current arrangements. There is an accusation that the independent complaints reviewer is, to an extent, the creature of the commission. If it is to continue to exist and to be useful even after the Bill creates the charity tribunal—we also have the alternative of the ombudsman route—some changes to the status of the independent reviewer could be instituted, and the new clause is designed to effect those.
In many respects, the new clause is self-explanatory. In opposing a similar suggestion in another place, the Minister, Lord Bassam of Brighton, suggested that the ombudsman route was advantageous. However, in practice that is not really available to many charities. As I said, in many respects the new clause speaks for itself and I will not detain the Committee any longer in proposing it, but I would be interested to hear hon. Members’ views on it.