Trusts (Capital and Income) Bill [HL]

Lord Wakeham Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Grand Committee

[Lord Wakeham]

My Lords, I rise briefly to support my noble friend on these proposals. First, I should declare an interest as a trustee of a substantial charity, which at the moment does not operate a total return investment policy but I am pretty sure would want to do so in the future. I could not help smiling at my noble friend Lord Phillips, because I too have enjoyed being here with the nostalgia of thinking of all the time I wasted as a young man learning about Howe v Earl of Dartmouth, Allhusen v Whittell and all of these cases, which are from many years ago so far as I am concerned.

My concern is a relatively simple one. I am perfectly content with what is being proposed, but recognise that all these things take quite a long time. As the Minister said, the Charity Commissioners have for a number of years now operated a scheme on a one-off basis to deal with cases that came forward, for suitable charities, where they allowed a total return investment policy to happen. I am concerned that there should not be a delay between that system and the new system, bearing in mind there has got to be consultation, regulations have to be drafted and implementation has to take place. I would like the Minister to be able to tell me that the existing system of the informal but important way the Charity Commissioners have worked in the past will continue to operate until the new system, with consultation and everything else, has been finalised. There should not be a gap when neither the old nor the new system is in operation for charities that wish to adopt this total return investment policy. When you stop and think about it, for the appropriate charities, it is very hard to consider a trustee is doing his job properly today if he does not think in terms of that. That is the only consideration I have and I hope that my noble friend can give me some encouragement on that point.