I take the hon. Lady’s point. It would depend on whether the individual was determined to include the information in their tax return at year end. I suspect that in most cases they would not necessarily be highly motivated to do that, but that they would be more concerned that the charity should get the gift aid. The suggestion is a practical one that comes from another source and I hope that the Minister will consider it. The hon. Lady is technically correct, but the Government might want to consider the proposal from the practical point of view.

Finally, Budget changes to the gift aid rules might have a further effect on charities that the clause will go only a little way to addressing. There has now been wide press comment that buried in the detail of the Budget is a likely knock-on effect whereby the Chancellor’s proposed changes in the basic rate of income tax will cost charities up to £70 million. There has been such concern in the charitable sector about the possible effect that eight heads of major charities wrote to The Times on 23 March to express their concern. The letter said:

“Sir, Gordon Brown’s tax cuts will mean that UK charities are likely to lose more than £70 million in income.

Under the Government’s Gift Aid scheme, charities can reclaim the tax paid on donations by UK taxpayers. With the reduction in the basic rate of tax from 22 to 20 per cent., Gift Aid income will be reduced by more than 10 per cent. We urge the Government to consider compensating charities for this significant reduction in income.”

I shall not read out all the signatures, but they included those of Professor Alex Markham, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, Kevin Cahill, the chief executive of Comic Relief, and Keith Hickey, the chief executive of the Charities Finance Directors Group.

The challenge for charities is compounded by the pressure on lottery funding on which many charities now rely, and by the additional £675 million of lottery money that was recently reallocated by the Government to the financing of the 2012 Olympics on top of the £750 million that the lottery was already providing for that event. That money will no longer be available to charitable good causes, which will result in further intensification of the pressure on charities in the United Kingdom.

The clause is a welcome move to amend the gift aid rules to allow donors to receive greater fringe benefits from supporting charities, while still remaining in the gift aid scheme. To that extent, we support it. However, in discussing gift aid I should like to press the Minister on three points.

First, what is the Minister’s view on the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s point about thresholds and why were those for more wealthy donations increased while the others were left unchanged? Secondly, would he at least think about the practical point in relation to gift aid and charity shops and does he have any initial view on it? I say this without irony: if he wants to consider that, he can write to me about it. Thirdly, given the potential double whammy that charities will suffer  from the reallocation of lottery funding to the Olympics and from changes in the basic rate of income tax, what further measures, if any, are the Government considering to the gift aid regime to account for that?