Draft Small Charitable Donations Act (Amendment) Order 2019

Debate between Clive Lewis and Patrick Grady

Tuesday 12th February 2019 General Committees

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

The spokesperson for the official Opposition, the hon. Member for Norwich South, raised some interesting points, but I did not pick up whether he supports the draft order. It is important that his questions be answered and considered, but the draft order will make a relatively minor change that I think will broadly be welcomed by the charitable sector. In my experience in the sector before coming to Parliament, I have seen the difference that gift aid can make to the operation of charities, especially small and community-based organisations and churches, which the Minister mentioned. The opportunity to reclaim from the likes of street collections, where it is not physically possible to collect gift aid information, is valuable.

[Clive Lewis]

We will probably abstain, but may I pick up the point the hon. Gentleman is making? It is easy to assume that all charities are charitable in their nature and how they operate, but clearly there are some with the potential not to do what they say on the tin. According to the Lloyds Bank Foundation,

“the proliferation of larger public service contracts meant that new types of charity had emerged, which had little interest in meeting local community need, but were instead ‘driven by market share’ and ‘prepared to slash costs to win contracts, with little regard to service quality.’”

We also know that there can be fraud and that charities can be used as a front for it. Our position is simply that there needs to be transparency.

[Patrick Grady]

That is very helpful. I do not necessarily disagree with any of it, but I would be concerned about standing in the way of a relatively minor uplift that would be beneficial, taking into account inflation and the increasing frequency and popularity of contactless donations. I totally agree with the points on transparency and on the need for that kind of scrutiny to continue. On that basis, I will not oppose this measure.

I want to respond to one other point that the Minister made. He said that not all small charities—legitimate local charities—necessarily take all this up. Perhaps there is a job for some us as constituency Members to encourage smaller community organisations that do not realise that this opportunity is available to them.

On at least one note of consensus, I notice that paragraph 8.1 of the explanatory memorandum states:

“This instrument does not relate to withdrawal from the European Union.”

I am sure that we all look forward to the day when we see that more frequently in explanatory notes.