Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill

Lord Berkeley of Knighton Excerpts

Wednesday 18th December 2013 Lords Chamber

Some of the charities that I and my wife support have difficulties doing the normal things. To add to that their being sent a letter that says that they have not done something that they had not thought about seems unnecessary. I hope that the Minister will take all this seriously.

[Lord Berkeley of Knighton (CB)]

My Lords, may I add a small rider to what the noble Lord, Lord Deben, has just said? I have been involved to a certain extent with raising funds, mainly in the arts, but also for charitable work. One of the questions that people are most frequently asked is: how much of the money will go on administration and bureaucracy? We must bear that in mind and minimise it as much as possible.

[Baroness Tyler of Enfield]

My Lords, I support Amendment 174. As my noble friend Lord Hodgson said, it relates to our earlier discussion about coalitions of organisations working and campaigning together. As my noble and learned friend the Minister said when summing up that debate, it is important to get the balance right between not creating loopholes in the rules, or rules that can turn into avoidance measures and things like that. But we must balance that with not just allowing but recognising in many cases that it is a good thing for small and medium-sized charities, in particular, to work together in their important campaigning. That should not be made overly burdensome or difficult for them. The amendment proposed by my noble friend Lord Hodgson is a sensible way of allowing coalitions to nominate a lead charity to deal with the reporting requirements, and I look forward to hearing what my noble and learned friend the Minister has to say about this in his summing up.