(8 years, 3 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Lord Bridges of Headley
That this House do agree with the Commons in their Amendments 1 to 7.
“( ) The Commission may vary or withdraw a warning under this section.
( ) Subsection (2) applies to the variation or withdrawal of a warning as it applies to a warning.
( ) Subsections (3) to (6) apply to the variation of a warning as they apply to a warning, except that—
(a) in subsection (5)(a) references to the warning are to be read as references to the warning as varied, and
(b) the matter to be specified under subsection (5)(b) is any change as a result of the variation in the action previously proposed by the Commission.”
“Reserve powers to control fund-raising
(1) The Charities Act 1992 is amended as follows.
(2) In Part 2, after section 64A (reserve power to control fund-raising by charitable institutions) insert—
“64B Reserve power in relation to fund-raising regulators
(1) Regulations under section 64A may, in particular, impose on charitable institutions requirements to do any of the following—
(a) to comply with requirements imposed by a regulator; (b) to have regard to guidance issued by a regulator;
(c) to pay fees to a regulator of an amount determined by the regulations or determined by the regulator in accordance with the regulations;
(d) to be registered with a regulator for the purpose of its regulation of charity fund-raising.
(2) “Regulator” means a body specified in the regulations as a regulator for the purposes of this section.
(3) A body may be specified as a regulator for the purposes of this section only if the regulation of charity fund-raising appears to the Minister to be a principal function of the body.
(4) A body maintained out of money provided by Parliament may not be specified as a regulator (and this section does not confer power by regulations to establish a body to act as regulator).”
(3) In Part 2, after section 64B insert—
“64C Reserve power to confer additional powers on Charity Commission
(1) In the case of charity fund-raising which—
(a) is carried on by a charity, a person managing a charity or a person or company connected with a charity, or
(b) involves soliciting or otherwise procuring funds for the benefit of a charity or a company connected with a charity, or for charitable purposes,
regulations under section 64A may, in particular, make provision conferring functions on the Charity Commission, including provision applying or reproducing, with or without modification, any provision of the Charities Act 2011.
(2) The regulations may provide for a power that is exercisable by the Commission by virtue of the regulations to be exercisable by a person appointed by the Commission for the purpose.”
(3) Where regulations by virtue of this section apply in relation to charity fund-raising by institutions that are not charities, section 19 of the Charities Act 2011 (fees and other amounts payable to Commission) applies in relation to the regulations as it applies in relation to the enactments relating to charities (but that is without prejudice to the application of other provisions by virtue of this section or section 77(3)).”
(4) In section 64A(2) after “this section” insert “and sections 64B and 64C”.
(5) In section 77(4) (regulations and orders) at the end insert “and, in the case of regulations made by virtue of section 64B or 64C, shall in particular consult the Charity Commission.””
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Lord Bridges of Headley) (Con)
My Lords, it is a pleasure to be back at the Dispatch Box to debate the amendments made in the other place to this important Bill. It is good to be in the final lap, so to speak, with the chequered flag fluttering in the distance. I will try to keep my comments brief.
Commons Amendment 1 is a sensible tweak which would enable the Charity Commission to withdraw or vary an official warning issued under Clause 1. The Charity Commission already has powers under the Charities Act 2011 to vary, revoke or discharge its orders, and we consider that the commission should have a similar ability to vary or withdraw an official warning. Any variation of a warning would be subject to the same processes and safeguards as issuing a new warning.
Commons Amendment 2 would remove Clause 9 from the Bill. This is perhaps one area where there has not been the same degree of agreement across the House as is the case for most of the Bill—a rare exception. But the Government’s position on this remains that Clause 9 is unhelpful and could have damaging unintended consequences for charities. The rationale for Clause 9 when it was introduced into the Bill on Report in this House was that it would send a clear signal to the Government about concerns relating to our manifesto commitment to extend right to buy to housing associations. The principal concern was that charitable housing associations could be compelled to sell their assets in a manner incompatible with their charitable purposes.
The Government listened to the concerns raised and, rather than legislate to deliver the right to buy, we reached a voluntary deal with the housing associations. Under the voluntary deal, there can be no question of housing associations being compelled to sell their assets in a manner incompatible with their charitable purposes; nor is there anything in the Housing and Planning Bill that would compel this. I also point out to noble Lords that the Housing and Planning Bill has been brought to this House and this represents the right place to make points about the Government’s housing policy.
Putting to one side the points about right to buy, our main concern about Clause 9 was that such an attempt to reflect the case law in a simple statutory provision would simply not work and would have potentially damaging unintended consequences for charities. For example, it was not clear how the clause would affect compulsory purchase orders or other court or Charity Commission orders. It was not clear what impact the clause might have on charity financial assets and investments. It was not clear how it could impact existing rights such as the preserved right to buy or right to acquire, which benefit 1.4 million housing association tenants. Some of your Lordships may wish to repeat or echo concerns about this issue but, for the reasons that I have just set out, I strongly encourage the House to support Commons Amendment 2.
Commons Amendments 3, 4 and 5 relate to the disqualification provisions in the Bill. Clause 10 extends the effect of disqualification to the most senior executive roles in a charity, normally the chief executive officer and, where there is one, the chief finance officer. We became aware that there was a risk that under the unamended provision, a person employed by a charity but who did not exercise any management function could still be caught. This may be the case in small charities in which only the trustees are involved in the management of the charity. Commons Amendment 3 addresses that in relation to automatic disqualification. Commons Amendment 4 makes the same change in relation to the proposed Charity Commission power to disqualify in Clause 11, where the same problem could otherwise arise.
I should point out that in response to various concerns raised by rehabilitation charities in relation to the Bill’s disqualification provisions, the Minister for Civil Society committed to a period of at least 12 months before the automatic disqualification provisions would be commenced. The Government and Charity Commission will work with rehabilitation charities ahead of implementation to assess the impact of these provisions on such charities, and will seek to ensure, where possible, that the provisions do not undermine their important work.
Commons Amendment 5 was another concession that responded to a point raised by rehabilitation charities. Under the proposed power to disqualify in Clause 11, one of the conditions for the exercise of the power—condition B—is that the individual has been convicted outside the UK of an offence against a charity or involving the administration of a charity, which, had it been in the UK, would have automatically disqualified the individual. Under Clause 11, the commission would be able take into account only an overseas conviction that is not spent under the law of the territory concerned, where the conviction took place. Rehabilitation charities pointed out that it would be more proportionate if this limitation related to the UK rehabilitation period for an equivalent UK sentence, rather than the rehabilitation period of the overseas jurisdiction. Commons Amendment 5 makes that change.
When the charities Bill was last discussed in your Lordships’ House, there was much interest in and support for strengthening the regulation of fundraising. Noble Lords will remember that in response to last year’s fundraising scandals my honourable friend the Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, asked Sir Stuart Etherington, the chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, to chair a cross-party panel tasked with exploring whether the system of fundraising regulation as a whole is the right one. I once again express my particular thanks to my noble friend Lord Leigh of Hurley, the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, and the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, who all forsook their deckchairs to spend much of last summer deliberating on this question.
I am pleased to say that the Government accepted the recommendations of the Etherington review. Charities have one last chance to show that self-regulation is the appropriate way to govern fundraising. I am very grateful to my noble friend Lord Grade of Yarmouth for agreeing to act as interim chair and set up the new fundraising regulator. I am sure that noble Lords will join me in congratulating him on his new role and wishing him well for this important endeavour. I also take this opportunity to draw your Lordships’ attention to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee report on charity fundraising, which was published last week. I welcome its main finding, namely that charities must seize this opportunity to show that self-regulation can work effectively. The Government will consider all the committee’s recommendations and respond in due course.
That brings me on to Commons Amendment 6, which seeks to extend the existing reserve power to regulate fundraising in Section 64A of the Charities Act 1992 and should act as a safeguard if self-regulation fails. It would do so in two main ways. First, new Section 64B would enable regulations made under Section 64A to prescribe a fundraising regulator with which charities must register and pay fees, which would have to be set in line with regulations, comply with the regulator’s requirements and have regard to its guidance. The second element is in new Section 64C, which would enable regulations to confer the power to regulate fundraising on the Charity Commission. It would enable the commission to subcontract day-to-day delivery of fundraising regulation while retaining overall control, and enable fees to be charged under Section 19 of the Charities Act 2011.
As the Minister for Civil Society said in the other place, he hopes that these powers will not be needed and that charities will get behind self-regulation and make it work. I am happy to report that many of the largest fundraising charities have already said that they will commit to the new system by registering with the new body which my noble friend Lord Grade is setting up. I commend them for their initiative and dedication to reforming charitable fundraising in such a way, which will safeguard the interests of the public and beneficiaries alike. The extended reserve powers sought in Commons Amendment 6 send a clear signal regarding the Government’s intention to see better regulation of fundraising in future. Fundraising regulation can no longer be allowed to be governed by vested interest or to turn a blind eye to free riders and those seeking to exploit the extraordinary generosity of the British public. The changes made to the Bill in Commons Amendment 6 will ensure this and I hope that noble Lords will join me in supporting it.
Finally, I turn to Amendment 7. This is the standard-form provision added on Third Reading in this House to avoid issues of privilege. Privilege issues would otherwise arise because the Bill authorises expenditure and charges, which are set out in the Ways and Means resolution. In accordance with standard procedure, the privilege amendment was removed at Commons Committee stage. There ends my canter through these amendments. I hope that your Lordships will support the Commons amendments, and I beg to move.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that very fast canter—it was almost a gallop. We on this side of the House continue to welcome the Bill, especially with the changes, some of which were made in your Lordships’ House and some by the Government in the Commons, most of which we applaud. The Bill strengthens the power of the Charity Commission and gives charities the power to make social investments which provide both a financial and social return. Importantly, in what we termed Olive’s law, in memory of that poppy seller, it now improves the regulation of fundraising by charities.
I want to make just three points as we bid this Bill farewell. The first is, unsurprisingly, on Commons Amendment 2, which overturns your Lordships’ vote by 257 to 174 to repeat what is, as the Minister said, current case law so that charities could not be,
“compelled to use or dispose of their assets in a way which is inconsistent with their charitable purposes”.
We feared then, and still fear now, that forcing housing associations to sell their properties to sitting tenants, where this is not allowed for in their charitable purposes, will fall foul of charity law. We will not seek to reinsert this clause today, but we tell the Government, and indeed the Charity Commission, that we will be watching to make sure that, as this part of the Housing and Planning Bill is implemented, it does not force trustees to breach either their trust deed or charity law.
The greatest wickedness, of course, is the selling off of the family silver, forcing councils to sell off their best council houses to fund £100,000 subsidies, not to housing associations but to the lucky few tenants who, within a few years, will be able to sell off that house and pocket the £100,000. We have yet to understand which part of charity law, or indeed general fairness, this meets.
Secondly, I turn to the Charity Commission’s regulation of charities and the increased powers in the Bill. Given that the lobbying Act restricts what charities can do in the way of campaigning and that, as we learned last week, the Department for Education is to stop “civil society”—usually charities—intervening on issues such as fair admissions, we see such restrictions on charities challenging government as part of a piece, alongside other attempts to curtail any opposition, whether from this House, through freedom of information or from other political parties.
The Government rejected our amendments to add the Charity Commission’s own guidelines to the Bill on charities having the right to campaign, thus leaving discretion on this with the Charity Commission. We will therefore look to the Charity Commission, in exercising its new powers, to enhance charities’ abilities to achieve their charitable objectives in the best way possible. We urge the commission to pay rather more attention to poor practice—for example with Kids Company, where it failed to grasp the extent of the financial mismanagement—rather than seeking to crack down on the legitimate activities of charities.
Thirdly, I turn to the Government’s amendment on fundraising, which we warmly endorse and which arose partly from our amendments in this House. I know the Minister had much sympathy with the approach then and tabled some of his own amendments on Report, which we were happy to support. We withdrew ours when the Government set up the Etherington inquiry. Even better, Sir Stuart and his three wise Peers reported in record time, and the Government adopted all their recommendations. Not stopping even to draw breath, they then appointed the noble Lord, Lord Grade, to chair a reinforced fundraising regulator.
Last week, as the Minister said, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, in its report, The 2015 Charity Fundraising Controversy, reiterated that this really is,
“the last chance for self-regulation”.
It commented:
“It would be a sad and inexcusable failure of charities to govern their own behaviour, should statutory regulation became necessary”.
We concur with that judgment as clearly as the Government. We also congratulate the Government on meanwhile tabling Amendment 6 in the Commons, which backs the new regulator and, vitally, includes that backstop reserve power for the Charity Commission should self-regulation fail. I congratulate both the Minister and his colleague in the Commons, Rob Wilson, on their fast footwork and firmness of purpose on this.
Finally, I thank the Minister, his Bill team and the Charity Commission for their help and hard work throughout this process. I add my thanks to those of the Minister to my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley and the noble Lords, Lord Leigh of Hurley and Lord Wallace of Saltaire, who sat on the Etherington committee. I also thank my noble friend Lord Watson for his input, and our legislative office colleague, Molly Critchley, for steering us calmly and expertly through the process.
Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Con)
My Lords, I thank both Front Benches for the warmth of their greeting to me as the chairman-designate of this new fundraising regulator. I hope that the depth, sincerity and warmth of their kind remarks bear no relation to the level of lethal poison in the chalice that I have inherited. I join the thanks expressed to the noble Lords, Lord Leigh and Lord Wallace, and the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, for the incredible work that they put into the Etherington review, which has been so unanimously welcomed.
It might help the House if I gave a short update on where we have got to in the fast-track creation of the new regulator. The show is on the road: the chief executive has been appointed and began work on 4 January. Within four weeks, we now have an office, generously provided by the Charities Aid Foundation, and six staff. Appointments to the board will be announced in the next few weeks, and we will also need to put in place a standards committee and, to hear and resolve complaints, an adjudication committee.
I do not think I underestimate the task ahead if we are to deliver on our intention to be fully operational in the early summer, but we are on track at the moment. At the point of handover from the Fundraising Standards Board, we will take ownership of the code of guidance from the Institute of Fundraising, and the rule book on street and door-to-door collections from the Public Fundraising Association. We are working very closely with both organisations, and I welcome their endorsement of the new regulatory arrangements. At handover, the arrangements for registration—obviously, we want as many charities as possible to sign up to the fundraising regulator, although that will not stop us from investigating those which may not sign up—and for levy payments by the larger fundraising charities will need to be in place.
Our proposals for the fundraising preference service will also be ready. The working group developing those proposals, serviced by the NCVO on our behalf, is already well under way. Let me emphasise that until the point of handover, the 2,000 member charities of the Fundraising Standards Board will need to continue to support that organisation, financially and otherwise, while it retains responsibility for fundraising regulation, until we are absolutely ready to go. We and the Fundraising Standards Board are committed to a seamless transition, which is essential if the purposes of the Bill are to be realised, and we want to inherit its experience and learn from what has worked well.
There is general acceptance, however, that the Fundraising Standards Board was somewhat under -resourced. We will have the levy resources necessary to do the job. We will be independent, with ownership of the code of guidance, and we will not hesitate to apply sanctions where appropriate. We will liaise closely with the Charity Commission, taking full account of its revised fundraising guidance for trustees and, if all else fails, referring to it contentious cases that may breach the guidance.
The Etherington review, the Fundraising Standards Board’s excellent but deeply worrying report on the sad, sad case of Olive Cooke and the recent report from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee in the other House have all demonstrated serious shortcomings in the fundraising practices of many larger fundraising charities. That is why this Bill is such an important and timely contribution. The public’s very negative view of this was confirmed last week in the YouGov poll published by the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The British public are as generous as anybody on this earth when it comes to putting their hands in their pockets to help those in need. However, charities cannot take that generosity for granted. There have been serious breaches in terms of the ethical way in which fundraising practices have begun to grow up in this country. We must take steps, which this Bill provides with the creation of this fundraising regulator, to make sure that that generosity is not taken for granted. The fundraising regulator now has a responsibility to the general public and, for the future of charities, to donors and potential donors, not least when they are vulnerable, to ensure that they are protected from undue pressure and unacceptable fundraising practices. That protection will be our first priority and these amendments and the Bill will, we hope, go a long way to ensuring that the public are protected and their generosity not taken for granted.
Lord Hope of Craighead (CB)
My Lords, as the Minister will recall, I had the privilege of chairing the Joint Committee that conducted pre-legislative examination of what was then called the Protection of Charities Bill. I cast my mind back to a year ago, when our committee was still sitting and considering the terms of our report. It is a pleasure to see some members of my committee in the House this afternoon. It is against that background that I pay my own tribute to the Minister and his Bill team for bringing the Bill to this stage: we are now truly at the last lap. One of our main concerns was that there should be no delay in the legislation we were examining. It is a great pleasure to see that matters have been taken this far forward with the changes made.
The only amendment I wish to comment on—I do not want to arouse too much controversy about this—is Amendment 2. I listened with great care to what the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter of Kentish Town, said and I appreciate the concern on the point she mentioned. However, the one feature I stress is that we did not as a committee have the chance to examine Clause 9. As the noble Lord said, that was introduced to the Bill on Report. It is the kind of clause that, speaking for myself, we would have wanted to examine with great care because of not only its implications on the point that the noble Baroness made but also its width. It is completely unqualified. If it had been more precisely targeted, we might have been a little more inclined to support it. I rather suspect that a clause as general as this would impose a very great burden on the Charity Commission. To a large extent, because of the protection of charity law generally, the clause would not be needed. I stress that I speak only for myself but I am relieved, against the background of what I have mentioned and having heard the Minister explain the reasons for it, that this amendment has come forward. I very much support it. My main point in rising to speak at all was to express my thanks and appreciation for the fact that we are now at this stage, in effect bringing the matter to an end.
Baroness Barker (LD)
My Lords, I, too, congratulate the Minister on getting his first piece of legislation through to its conclusion. I thank him also for the way in which he took us through the amendments today.
I will concentrate initially on one aspect of these amendments that has not so far been discussed: Amendments 3, 4 and 5, dealing with matters to do with the rehabilitation of offenders. I and other members of the committee had great sympathy with the case made to us by the charity Unlock about the problems that this Bill would pose particularly for charities that specialise in the rehabilitation of offenders. Their great concern was that up to approximately 50,000 people in this country with past convictions would find themselves now unable to take part in the process of being a trustee, even though they had committed those offences some considerable time ago and had managed to rehabilitate themselves. Last week in court there was a ruling on the matter of the severity of minor offences and their duration in relation to people having to make declarations. I rather suspect that, if that judgment is upheld, this legislation will have to be revisited fairly swiftly. I simply draw that to noble Lords’ attention.
Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Con)
My Lords, I should like to join others and pour a little more honey over my noble friend’s head and over the head of the Bill team, which has worked hard to bring the good ship into harbour. I shall focus on Amendment 6 and I congratulate the Government on that amendment and the fundraising aspects of it. I urge them to keep up the pressure and wish my noble friend Lord Grade every success in this difficult task.
It is important that we are trying to strike a balance here, which is quite rightly focused on the public not being unduly hassled and being asked in the right way. That is absolutely appropriate, but we must not lose sight of the charities’ right to be able to ask, because if they cannot do so, the effect on our charitable sector, which is vital to our civil society, will be quite extreme. When I carried out the review for the Government a few years ago, it was clear that that balance had not been reached appropriately, given the alphabet soup of regulatory bodies and the different types of fundraisers who blame each other for their bad reputation, along with the fact that the public were confused and wanted a single point of contact. In my report, which was sent to Ministers in July 2012 and accepted by Ministers, I suggested a six-month deadline. Three years later, last summer, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter of Kentish Town, pointed out, we had the flashpoint over fundraising, caused by the sad case of Olive Cooke. I congratulate Sir Stuart Etherington and the Members of your Lordships’ House who took part in that review. I think they have come up with some excellent proposals. But this is the last chance of the last chance of the last chance saloon; we have been around this now two or three times.
I am not in favour of statutory regulation against a rapidly changing scene. However, I have to say to my noble friend and to the Minister that in my conversations with the sector there remains a distressing tendency still to see this as somebody else’s problem—still to say, “We are a charity and our reputation is everything, therefore we wouldn’t do anything wrong and how can you possibly think that we are doing anything wrong?”. It is an issue that has still to be hammered home in certain parts of the charity sector to make sure that the message gets over. The reputation of the sector is as strong as the weakest link in the chain, and there remain too many weak links in the chain, which I hope that my noble friend and his colleagues will be able to tackle.
My noble friend has to keep fingering the trigger marked 64C. We have to see his knuckle tightening around the trigger to make the sector understand that this is really important because the distressing tendency to think it will all go away remains. Last week, one charity said to me, “We don’t need to worry about it because we’re good. We’re a charity and the Government don’t want to pull the trigger anyway”. My noble friend must be ready to pull that trigger and make it clear that he will do it. I want to see his trigger finger whitening over the next few months.
Lord Bridges of Headley
My Lords, I am extremely grateful for those incredibly kind words. The Bill has been through a long journey of consultation, pre-legislative scrutiny and parliamentary scrutiny and has emerged all the better for it. I thank a number of noble Lords for all they have done, not just in this parliamentary Session but well before it to make the Bill such a success. The Bill has seen this House at its very best. Where we have differed, we have managed to iron out our differences on the Floor of the House and off it. We have made concessions in the light of very good points that were made by a number of noble Lords. The Bill is all the stronger for it.
I will keep my remarks very brief, but I associate myself with a lot of what my noble friend Lord Hodgson said. I thank him in particular for what he has done to make the Bill what it is today. We can get into lots of clichés about having last orders in the last chance saloon with my finger on the trigger. I think we all agree that the charitable sector must heed the measures now before it. It must act and show that it is acting in short order. We will all be keeping our eye on what it does.
On that point, I thank my noble friend Lord Grade for his update. We are right behind him as well as alongside him. I urge him to make all the use he can of the expertise and good will on all sides of this House as he ventures out on his enterprise. There is a lot of wisdom to be drawn from this House and a lot of good will to make sure that his regulatory flourish produces the results we all want.
Before I finish, I will say a couple of words of thanks. I thank the Whip, my noble friend Lord Younger of Leckie, the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayter and Lady Barker, and the noble Lord, Lord Watson of Invergowrie, all of whom have helped me on this, my first Bill. I repeat my thanks to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Hope of Craighead, and my noble friend Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts. I thank again my noble friend Lord Leigh of Hurley, the noble Baroness, Lady Pitkeathley, and the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, who helped me a lot during the summer, enabling us to make fast progress on the fundraising front. I thank the Cabinet Office and Charity Commission officials in the Bill team for their work in supporting the passage of the Bill.
We will soon hand over the Act to be implemented by the Charity Commission. I know that noble Lords will be watching closely to ensure that the powers in the Act are used fairly and proportionately. I am sure that they will be, and I look forward to a positive report when the Act comes to be reviewed in three years’ time. Charities’ life-blood is public trust and confidence, which have been undermined by several regulatory failures. The Bill will do much to support the effective protection and regulation of charities and will help restore the public trust and confidence on which charities rely.