National Insurance Contributions Bill

Lord Newton of Braintree Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newton of Braintree]

I had not intended to intervene—this is a bit of an overcrowded gap, and I apologise for not having given notice—but I was quite struck by the references to charities. I should declare an interest as I was until recently the chair of Help the Hospices and have a whole variety of other charitable connections of one kind or another that are listed in the register.

I understand what has led the noble Lord, Lord Myners, to make this point, but I would also say that in the charitable world in general, including in the Charities Commission, there is some doubt about whether we really want to go on encouraging the creation of more and more small charities which often end up competing with each other; and whether, in that case, we should want to give an advantage to new charities against existing small charities in the way that is suggested. It sounds good, but it needs some fairly hard thinking.