Third Sector Review

Part of Business of the House – in the House of Commons at 2:38 pm on 18 October 2007.

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Photo of Charles Walker Charles Walker Conservative, Broxbourne 2:38, 18 October 2007

I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. I do not mean to suggest that the charities are wasting money, but that constituents looking in from the outside may worry about how their money is being spent. It is incumbent on charities, and important for them, to keep explaining why PR staff are important.

Of course, political campaigning has a role in the charitable sector and I would not want that to be eroded, but all hon. Members have probably been on the receiving end of some fairly aggressive single issue campaigns which basically said, "If you don't support my position, I'm going to withdraw my vote from you." We in Parliament know that there are very few black or white decisions to be made in public policy. Instead, there are many shades of grey in politics. As politicians, we must balance the competing interests of our constituents. I make a plea, more to charities than to my colleagues, to be mindful of that.

Gift Aid is a fabulous mechanism for charities to raise additional money for good works. The claiming back of Gift Aid, though, can be time consuming. I am sure that many people who give to charity never get around to filling in the Gift Aid forms so large sums of money are potentially lost. Will the Government consider allowing charities to report at the end of the year the amount of money that they have received from charitable donations—gifts from the public—and the Treasury to provide a lump sum on top of that to reflect the Gift Aid? That would remove from the donor the responsibility of filling out the forms, and from the charity the responsibility of collecting them. The Government would accept the audited amount and provide an additional 25 per cent. on top of that.

My final point concerns the Olympics. In Broxbourne we are very lucky—we have the canoeing, and we are grateful for that. It will be a powerful tool for the regeneration of Waltham Cross, a fairly deprived area of my constituency. However, I am concerned that quite a large sum that would have gone to charitable organisations is being diverted from good causes to fund the Olympics. We need to be mindful that that will have an impact on the ability of charities to provide services in our communities. The lottery should primarily be for the little extra things that make life worth living—a cricket pavilion, an extra football field—and not so much for core funding. I entirely appreciate the importance of cancer scanners, but those are better left to the NHS to provide, as opposed to the lottery fund.

That is my brief and modest contribution to the debate, and I thank the House for listening so intently.