Small Charitable Donations Bill

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Monday 26th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Cathy Jamieson]

I beg to move amendment 4, page 1, line 17, leave out ‘maximum donations limit’ and insert ‘the specified amount.’.

This amendment is consequential on amendment 3.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Amendment 3, page 1, line 19, leave out subsections (4) and (5).

This amendment removes the matching principle from the bill.

Government amendment 23.

Amendment 1, page 2, line 1, leave out ‘double’ and insert ‘triple’.

To increase the maximum claim to triple the amount of gift aid claimed each year. Cathy Jamieson

Amendment 5, in clause 4, page 3, line 13, leave out ‘for the purposes of section 1(4)’.

This amendment is consequential on amendment 3.

Amendment 6, in clause 6, page 4, line 27, leave out ‘for the purposes of section 1(4)’.

This amendment is consequential on amendment 3.

Amendment 17, page 4, line 38, leave out paragraph (a) and insert—

‘(a) the sum of the small donations that are made to the charity in the community building in the tax year, or’.

This amendment seeks to remove the requirement that donations under the community buildings amount can only be made by group members while the charity is running its charitable activities.

Amendment 18, page 5, line 3, leave out ‘by group members while it is running charitable activities in the buildings’.

This is consequential on amendment 17.

Amendment 19, page 5, line 5, leave out subsection (6).

This is consequential on amendment 17.

Amendment 20, in clause 7, page 5, leave out lines 20 and 21.

This is consequential on amendment 17.

Amendment 7, in clause 9, page 6, line 29, leave out ‘for the purposes of section 1(4)’.

This amendment is consequential on amendment 3.

Government amendment 30.

[Cathy Jamieson]

Again, I hope not to detain the House to any great extent. As the Minister will recall, we consistently pushed the Government to reconsider the matching principle in the Bill as we believed that it was too onerous for many small charities and would mean that many of them could not benefit from a scheme that was supposedly set up to help them.

The Government amendments show that the Minister has bowed to the pressure not just from members of the Committee but from people in the charitable sector who had serious concerns about the impact of the measures from the very start. I will not repeat all the comments made by the different organisations over the course of our discussions about the Bill.

We could of course continue to argue for the matching principle to be dropped completely and could make a case for that. However, given that the Government have seen fit to introduce changes that will take the ratio from 2:1 to 10:1, I think we should recognise that they have moved a significant amount, which has been welcomed by the sector. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say about his amendments and I want to make it clear that I do not think our amendments are required at this point as they have been superseded by his.