NHS (Charitable Trusts Etc) Bill

Maggie Throup Excerpts

Friday 22nd January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Michael Tomlinson]

Again, I do not have those figures to hand. My hon. Friend is right to raise this because it is an issue of concern; cost must always be borne in mind, but, as I have said, I am speaking to the principle, and unfortunately I do not have the specific figures she asks for.

[Maggie Throup (Erewash) (Con)]

Cost is important, but the transparency angle outweighs it.

[Michael Tomlinson]

My hon. Friend, who has put her name to these amendments, makes a valid point, and helps me to make the argument that the public consultation is the right way forward.

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[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I agree with my hon. Friend. I want to finish on this set of amendments by saying that this House should be jealous of its role as the major focus of consultation in the nation. We were elected to represent our constituents and therefore to express views on these issues. That is why we are here, and what is done with consultation so often is a pretence. It is not about the Government wanting the wisdom of the millions before making up their mind but about the Government wanting the comfort of having been through a rigmarole to get what they wanted in the first place. We should not give up our authority lightly or increase the power of the Executive.

I know want to turn briefly to the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire, which are absolutely glorious in their conception. They basically reverse what the Bill is trying to do in the first place, which is a great thing for him to have slipped past our ever-attentive Clerks. That does not often happen on Report. Perhaps the amendments—and this is why our Clerks in their wisdom let them go through—would ensure that there is a safeguard. Safeguards may be sensible. There have been occasions where charities have got into trouble when public money is being spent. Although it is broadly considered a good idea to remove the power from the Secretary of State to appoint trustees so that a decision is made more locally and so that the construction of the charities may be more suitable for the local organisations—that has a great deal of support —we know that something will go wrong at some point.

That is not a particularly Cassandra-like view to take; it is just the experience that we have. We know that there will be a small charitable hospital that puts all its money into an Icelandic bank, for example, and suddenly loses it. The trustees get criticised and attacked, or they write 3,000 letters a year to elderly ladies asking them for money and are seen to have behaved badly. Then somebody will come forward, probably a Member of this House, who will ask the Secretary of State at Question Time, “Why is it that you, Secretary of State, are not doing anything to stop this problem arising? Why have you not kept those residual powers? Why did you not ensure that when the Bill went through Parliament, there was a safeguard, something to protect—”

[Maggie Throup]

I agree with my hon. Friend’s argument. That could happen to any charity, not just an NHS charity, so why introduce safeguards specifically for NHS charities?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting and important point. NHS charities are different because of the structure of the national health service and the conception of the national health service in people’s minds. There is much less of an immediate governmental interest, or concern with, ordinary private charities that were founded sometimes centuries ago with grants from generous benefactors that through the mists of time have evolved and developed. NHS charities work side by side with the state in all that they do, so they are a marginal extension of the state rather than something completely different from it. If we draw a Venn diagram of the third sector, we have a part that is very private and another part that is very much state. NHS charities are very much in the state part of the Venn diagram.

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[Kit Malthouse]

Fifteen years on the Public Accounts Committee—extraordinary! I therefore take his words seriously. He is right that the key is to get the governance entirely right.

I guess the point that I am making—maybe I am a lone voice, although perhaps I am joined by my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset—is that even with the most ideal governance in the world, things occasionally go wrong. In that instance, the Secretary of State must have the power to step in, given the critical nature of the services these charities perform and their inextricable link to the national health service.

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend’s amendments would undermine the whole purpose of the Bill, which is to give these charities their independence. As he rightly says, the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill, which is going through the House at the moment, will strengthen the protections and the governance arrangements for charities such as these.

[Kit Malthouse]

I acknowledge that point, but we have been round this carousel a couple of times. I pose just one question to those who are nervous about my amendments: in the event of something going wrong, who would fire and replace the trustees? No one. They become a self-governing group. One of the problems with charitable governance is that there are no shareholders to dispose of underperforming trustees. Charities have to acknowledge their own bad performance and fire themselves. In a situation where there is an inextricable link to a particular establishment, the Secretary of State needs to have the ability to step in, in extremis.

It is often forgotten that charities receive public money, and no charity is more likely to receive public money than an NHS hospital charity. Such charities are more likely to receive grants for their performance of services, projects, equipment and so on. We therefore have a particular interest in NHS charities.

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[Wendy Morton]

My hon. Friend raises an interesting point. The key point of my private Member’s Bill is to enable this group of charities to achieve what they said they wanted in the consultation, which is a shift away from the Secretary of State’s powers to appoint so that they can demonstrate independence. The charity world has moved on so much since charities were first created, and the model of governance needs to change in the same way.

What makes this particularly interesting is that previous rules surrounding the appointment of individual trustees were restricted to one linked person only. In any case, I believe that the new arrangements in the Bill—not the amendments—are far better and far more beneficial because this “blend of trustees” helps further to help and enhance communications and understanding by both the charity and the trust. Surely that can only be a good thing.

If I may, as the Member in charge of the Bill, I would like to touch on amendment 9, which deals with the use of the NHS logo and was tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Mr Rees-Mogg). I shall not make too many references to fashion. Although I could make many a link between logos—and, indeed, brands—and fashion, I shall leave Members to draw their own conclusions about the fashion, style or otherwise of my hon. Friend. To be fair, he raised the issue of the NHS logo on Second Reading, so it is only right for him to bring it forward today as an amendment for consideration. I bow, if not to his fashion sense, to the grace and eloquence of his style in speaking to his amendment today. Perhaps we could share some lessons.

The term “logo” can be defined as a symbol or other small design adopted by an organisation to identify its products, uniforms, vehicles or perhaps a company or organisation. It is often uniquely designed for ready recognition, and I think the NHS logo fits that definition. It is instantly recognisable, and the public know exactly what it is all about. However, I cannot support the amendment because I believe it is a matter best explored through the Department of Health or perhaps through the memorandum of understanding, which is part of the move to independent charity status. It should not become part of this Bill.

At risk of sounding—hopefully not appearing—more like Hook than Wendy Darling, I will bring my comments to a conclusion by simply saying that although we have explored worthwhile amendments this morning and raised some important points, I shall not support any of those amendments.

[Maggie Throup]

I am delighted to speak in support of this important Bill on Report and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) on leading it through the complexities of the House. In the time available—I shall keep my contribution short because I realise how long it has taken us to get this far this morning—I shall speak specifically against amendment 2. If accepted, it would give the Secretary of State the power to introduce secondary legislation to re-establish his or her right to appoint trustees to NHS charities.

Charitable giving is one of the cornerstones of our society, with the Charities Aid Foundation estimating that in 2014 alone £10.6 billion was donated by the British public to a variety of good causes. Indeed, we are the home of some of the world’s greatest charitable fundraisers such as Children in Need, Comic Relief, Sport Relief, and not forgetting, of course, Live Aid.

One clear message that came out of the 2014 consultation on the governance of NHS charities was that potential donors felt put off by the perceived lack of independence of the charities from the Government. One of the Bill’s fundamental principles that seeks to rectify this perception —one that I wholeheartedly support—is the removal of the right of the Secretary of State to appoint trustees to particular NHS bodies or to appoint special trustees.

The Bill is designed to give more autonomy to NHS charities to appoint their own trustees and bring them into line with most of the rest of the charitable sector, in which that is already common practice. As well as removing the perception that the charities lack independence from Governments, such a move would enable them to adopt different legal forms specific to their needs, particularly those offering limited liability. It would remove the barriers of dual regulation under both NHS and charity legislation, which currently make it difficult for NHS charities to achieve and demonstrate true independence.

[Seema Kennedy]

My hon. Friend is making a very good point. Members may have seen a report in today’s Times about trusted professions. Apparently doctors are trusted by 89% of the population, but Ministers—not politicians as a whole—are trusted by only 22%, although I am sure that that does not apply to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State. Surely vesting independence in these charities independently and drawing them away from Governments will only enhance their local reputation.

[Maggie Throup]

I entirely agree. That is exactly why I feel that they need to be independent from Secretaries of State and Governments. I must read the whole of that article: it sounds extremely interesting. We must think about how we can improve our image in the public domain.

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[Jane Ellison]

How nice it is to hear about that charity. I congratulate my hon. Friend on taking the opportunity to praise it and to shine a spotlight on a charity that so richly deserves it. Indeed, well done to him for name-checking Paddington in a debate that has been otherwise dominated by Peter Pan. We will see whether any more well-loved characters make an appearance before the end of the debate.

[Maggie Throup]

I cannot lay claim to any characters in my constituency. It is not just the work that charities do in hospitals that is important, but the work that they do outside hospitals to make sure that people do not go into hospital. One of my local charities, Community Concern Erewash, recently linked up with the Alzheimer’s Society to work in the community to help people suffering from Alzheimer’s to cope in their own homes and stay in their homes a lot longer. Will my hon. Friend praise that charity and recognise the contribution that such charities make to our society?

[Jane Ellison]

I am delighted to add my praise for my hon. Friend’s charity. I was honoured after the election to have dementia policy added to my portfolio as public health Minister. She is right to draw our attention to the need to work outside hospital to keep people safer in their own homes. As I know from working with dementia charities, large and small, much of that work is done by small local charities. I am delighted to echo her praise for the charity in her constituency.

To return to the amendments, although the largest charities require a level of professional management, the same is not required by many of the smallest ones. The corporate trustees arrangement, whereby the board of the trust or, prior to that, the board of the hospital acts as the trustee, is not sufficient to manage the large sums that are held by the largest NHS charities. They need a more professional approach, in many cases. The Government first took steps to address that issue in 1973. The Secretary of State took powers to appoint so-called special trustees to manage charitable property on behalf of hospital boards. Three hospitals—Moorfields, the Royal National Orthopaedic hospital and Great Ormond Street—appointed such special trustees to manage their charitable funds.

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[Wendy Morton]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time.

Let me begin by thanking Members who are here today for giving up another constituency Friday to take part in the debate. Some of them were also present on Second Reading, including my hon. Friends the Members for Erewash (Maggie Throup) and for North East Somerset (Mr Rees-Mogg), who is no longer in the Chamber. I also thank those who served on the Public Bill Committee, absenting themselves from the debate on Syria to be present on that day, and, again, I thank Members on both sides of the House who sponsored my Bill last summer after my name had been drawn in the ballot, allowing Peter Pan to find his Wendy—or, at least, I hope so. I thank the Department of Health for its help, and, as a new Member, I thank those in the Public Bill Office, whose patience has been admirable. I should also record my thanks to the hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) for supporting the Bill; sadly, he is not present today.

I welcome my new Tinker Bell to the Dispatch Box. I feel duty bound to reassure her that I remain on my guard for ticking crocodiles, Captain Hook and, of course, those unruly Lost Boys, although they are not here at the moment.

I am, of course, delighted that my NHS (Charitable Trusts Etc) Bill—commonly known, I hope and believe, as the Peter Pan and Wendy Bill, without brackets or Etc—has safely arrived at its Third Reading. There has been no exit stage left, or right, taking it directly to Neverland; it is still en route to another place, and, I trust, to Royal Assent.

On Second Reading, we were given many examples—some based on personal experience—of the importance of NHS charities and their role in supporting hospitals, patients, parents and staff. That has been underlined by the accounts that we heard today of the tremendous work that NHS charities do, and it also demonstrates the Bill’s importance in helping those charities to continue and flourish.

As I have mentioned before, NHS charities are regulated under charity law, but they are also linked to NHS bodies and bound by NHS legislation. They are charitable trusts, established under NHS legislation, and have as their trustee an NHS body such as a foundation trust, or trustees appointed by the Secretary of State for an NHS body. It should be borne in mind that NHS charities are distinct from independent charities established solely under charity law.

Funds donated to the NHS must be held separately from Exchequer funding provided by the taxpayer. These charities exist to support their beneficiaries, and there is a special relationship between them and the trusts with which they are associated. Some wonderful examples have been given today of local hospital charities and the special relationship that they have with their local NHS trusts.

The first part of the Bill makes provision to remove the Secretary of State for Health’s powers to appoint trustees for NHS charities in England and makes amendments to primary legislation concerned with this. It is important to remember that this fulfils a commitment by the Government in 2014, subsequent to a DOH review and consultation on the governance of NHS charities. The outcome of the consultation was that NHS charities would be allowed to convert to independence if they chose to do so and the Secretary of State for Health’s powers to appoint trustees to NHS charities under the National Health Service Act 2006 would be removed at the earliest opportunity.

It is fair to say that a number of the larger NHS charities called for reform because of concerns that the NHS legislative framework limited their freedom to grow and develop their charitable activity to best support their beneficiaries and to demonstrate to potential donors a visible independence from Government. That is an important point, and some have already grasped the opportunity to become independent while others are in the process and some are planning to do so in the future.

Collectively across the country about 260 charities currently exist to receive and manage charitable funds on behalf of NHS charities. I am sure Members will be interested to know that just over £345 million was raised by these charities in the last financial year, supporting patients and staff right across the country, so we should be doing all we can to support them. They make an outstanding contribution, yet their work often goes unheralded. I hope that today’s debate helps to publicise their work and the valuable contribution they make to hospitals as well as to the lives of patients, their families and clinicians. But just as healthcare moves on, so does the charitable environment, and there is a real need to place certainty in an already complex structure. I hope, and believe, that that is what this Bill will do.

There are currently 16 NHS charities that have trustees appointed by the Secretary of State for Health, and all of them are affected by my Bill. They are bound by charity law and NHS legislation. They are unincorporated and their trustees have unlimited liability.

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend mentions that NHS charities are bound by charity law as well as other legislation. We both sat on the Charities (Social Investment and Protection) Public Bill Committee. Can she expand on why her Bill should be a separate Bill and why its measures cannot go through as part of that Bill?

[Wendy Morton]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. I also sat on the charities Bill Committee, and it comes back to the House next week, I believe. My Bill is a specific piece of legislation. It came about because of Great Ormond Street hospital and the need to move the right to the royalties. It also comes under the remit of the DOH, whereas the charities Bill is under the remit of the Minister for Civil Society and the Cabinet Office. My Bill, at its heart, goes to the fact that the original Act on the Peter Pan royalties and the extension to the signed copyright patent was unique—so that unique bit of legislation needed another unique bit of legislation.

Sixteen of the charitable trusts have chosen either to revert to a corporate trustee model or to become independent. Most hospital charities operate the corporate trustee model anyway, and we have heard a lot about that today. Many have indicated that they are seeking to make this transition and many others are also considering it.

Six charities have already completed the transition to independence. These include Barts Charity, which raises money for Barts Health NHS Trust, including St Bartholomew’s hospital. This was the first to receive an independence order. The others are Alder Hey in Liverpool, Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, which is close to my own constituency of Aldridge-Brownhills, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, and the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals Charity. They are all now able to benefit from greater independence and less bureaucracy, and that further demonstrates the benefits of the Bill. Great Ormond Street’s is one of the six to have converted to independence. I will come back to that, as well as to its unique status and the need for specific legislative change to remove the statutory obstacle currently preventing the charity from becoming fully independent. Of the remaining NHS charities, about half have agreed to convert to independence but have not yet formally informed the Department of Health, while the others are in discussion with their trustees and hospital boards.

Importantly, the Bill is supported by Great Ormond Street hospital and NHS charities more generally. It also has the support of the Association of NHS Charities, and I would like to put on the record my thanks to it for its help. Let me provide a quote from a chief executive of an NHS charity, as that is a good way of explaining why the Bill is important. This chief executive said that

“this is exactly the right move for us as it deals with a peculiar anomaly in our status. Moving to full independence will mean that we can compete on a level playing field with other health and social care charities in our fund raising and other activities. No longer being seen as part of government.”

On Report, we received some interesting amendments from hon. Members, who gave us the opportunity to explore and question a number of points in relation to the Bill. Although I am pleased they were not pressed to a vote and were not accepted, I believe each was worthy of our sincere consideration.

Turning now to the second part of the Bill, it is important to remind ourselves of the special link that Great Ormond Street hospital has with J. M. Barrie, who made a very generous bequest to it of the right of royalties to the “Peter Pan” stories. As I explained on Second Reading, J. M. Barrie bequeathed all rights to “Peter Pan” to GOSH in 1929. He died in 1937, with GOSH enjoying a further 50 years of royalties. On the eve of the copyright expiring, the J. M. Barrie bequest acquired its unique legal status as a direct result of Lord Callaghan’s amendments to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. That reserved royalty income to the hospital trust and carried the stipulation of the creation of a special trust at that time. Though now held in perpetuity by GOSH, legislation is needed to enable the receipt of royalties to move to the new, independent Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. My Bill, with its provision for amendments to the 1988 Act, will do that. It will enable GOSH to take full advantage of this move to independent status, thereby giving it greater freedom to attract additional funding. It will also reduce the burden of bureaucracy by leaving it under the sole jurisdiction of the Charity Commission.

I am sure Members will be interested to know that I have met representatives from the GOSH Children’s Charity, and, as I reported on Second Reading, I have visited the hospital to see for myself the work the charity does and the huge contribution it makes. I have also met members of staff and clinicians to hear about some of the cutting-edge research and treatments they are working on. My visit to GOSH further emphasised the importance of this Bill. One cannot go there and fail to be touched by the work that goes on there, the commitment, the dedication and the inspiration—it is truly amazing, as indeed is the work of all our NHS hospitals and charities.

As we all know, the work and influence of Great Ormond Street children’s hospital stretches way beyond Greater London, which is why so many Members are in the Chamber to support and watch the progress of this Bill. In the financial year 2014-15, the GOSH charity raised a staggering £80,981,000, an increase on the previous year’s figure.

In November, I am sure that avid newspaper readers will have noticed that The Independent and the Evening Standard launched their Gift to GOSH Christmas appeal, attracting celebrity backing as well as a pledge from my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to match donations pound for pound from the Treasury with up to £1.5 million. I am fortunate enough to have an update from Great Ormond Street hospital, which tells me that to date £2.7 million has been raised as a result of that appeal. That reflects the warmth felt by the British public towards Great Ormond Street, as well as their generosity. The campaign still has not ended—it runs until 14 February—so who knows what the final total will be. Those funds are going to support things such as paediatric research and a new specialist unit for children with heart failure.

One of the most generous donors over the years has been, of course, J. M. Barrie, whose bequest of the royalties from “Peter Pan” is one of the reasons we are here today. It is amazing that even today, 79 years after the death of Barrie, the bequest is still a crucial source of income to the charity, which demonstrates that “Peter Pan” remains a firm favourite of us all. I must confess that I watched it over Christmas and, as one might expect, the book has had a permanent place on my desk for number of months. It is probably in my handbag in the Chamber today.

By supporting the Bill today, I believe that we are all doing a little bit to help the work of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity by securing the J. M. Barrie income stream for the new independent charity. Without this Bill, it would be unable fully to complete its conversion to independent charity status. Without it, I believe that there could be risks to legacies to the charity, and I would not wish to see that happen. It also creates further complications, because operating two charities side-by-side requires a duplication of governance, separate accounts and, potentially, duplicate returns to the Charity Commission. The Bill is not just needed, it is wanted, and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity has confirmed this. It is also supported by the chair of the hospital trust, Baroness Blackstone, who I must also thank for her support, and the charity’s chair of trustees.

To summarise my Bill, it has received support from Members on both sides of the Chamber, for which I am grateful, from Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and from the Association of NHS Charities. It delivers on commitments that followed a Department of Health review and consultation on the governance of NHS charities, whereby charities were given the opportunity to seek greater independence under the sole regulation of the Charity Commission and the Secretary of State’s powers to appoint trustees were no longer necessary. It paves the way for sensible housekeeping.

We listened to some interesting amendments today that enabled further scrutiny of the Bill, for which I am grateful. I hope that this Bill, which I have believed in from the outset, does not end up in Neverland but heads out of this Chamber across Central Lobby to land safely on the Red Benches of the other place to continue its passage. I commend the Bill to the House.

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[Maggie Throup]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) on getting this very important Bill to its Third Reading, and I am delighted to support it in this debate. It is great to see a private Member’s Bill get to this stage with the support of everybody in the House.

As I have said in this place before, our nation would be a poorer place without the thousands of charities and trustees who contribute their time and expertise without fear or favour. Close to my heart are the many hospital-related charities that play such an important role in supporting our free-at-the-point-of-care national health service, which has served us so well. It is vital that those charities are allowed to conduct their amazing work with as few barriers as possible.

I am often asked by people in this place and elsewhere, “Where exactly is Erewash?” My reply is that it is in Derbyshire, between Derby and Nottingham; for that reason, many of my constituents end up going to Nottingham hospitals for their care, as well as to Royal Derby hospital and our local Ilkeston community hospital. I know that my constituents will be pleased that I am supporting this Bill, as it will have an impact on the nearby Nottingham Hospitals Charity, which raises money to improve facilities and fund new equipment. It provides important additional services, supports staff development, and initiates local medical research at Queen’s medical centre and Nottingham children’s hospital, as well as at City hospital, Ropewalk House, and Hayward House. On its website, the charity outlines that

“thanks to the generosity…of its donors and fundraisers, it is able to fund the ‘added extras’ to make the experience of being in hospital better for people of all ages.”

It truly is at the heart of care for patients.

Examples of how the charity’s money has been spent include £15,000 for a heart function monitor for sick children, which helped to save the life of a six-month-old baby within hours of its being installed; £1.1 million for better ward facilities for children with cancer; £150,000 to kick-start medical research projects with the aim of improving treatment and services for a whole host of conditions and diseases; and £2.1 million towards a new centre to transform the care of cystic fibrosis patients. The charity currently has two main ongoing appeals: first, raising funds for an on-site helipad at Queen’s medical centre, which is the east midlands’ trauma centre; and secondly, raising money for a beautiful and serene courtyard garden for those suffering with ear, nose and throat cancer.

No doubt the general public would think that Nottingham Hospitals Charity, like the majority of charities, is free to appoint its own trustees, but under current legislation this is likely not to be the case. Yet nearby in Ilkeston, at our community hospital, there is a very active league of friends that does have complete freedom to appoint its own trustees. We have heard today about the good work of leagues of friends across the whole country, and Ilkeston community hospital’s is no exception. It raises money with the same aims as Nottingham Hospitals Charity—to fund the added extras to make the experience of being in hospital better for people of all ages. It is also at the heart of care for in-patients and out-patients at Ilkeston community hospital.

The league of friends is a dedicated group of people who, in addition to making cups of tea for patients and visitors, hold a wide array of fundraising events. For a busy person anywhere near Ilkeston next December, I recommend that they visit the Christmas fair, as I am sure there will be a stall there, as there was last December, selling really nice Christmas cakes. As I had not had time to make my Christmas cake, one of those cakes saved my life; the people who came to my house were able to sample its delights. Recent fundraising has resulted in the charity buying a scanner for the Valerie Jackson scanner suite at the hospital, to name just one successful project that the group has supported.

So why do we need this Bill? As I see it, there are three main disadvantages to the current structure of NHS charitable trust status. First, potential donors may perceive that the charities lack independence from Government, and that may put them off donating. Secondly, being bound by legislation prevents the charities from adopting different legal forms specific to their needs, particularly those offering limited liability. Thirdly, the Charities Commission believes that dual regulation under both NHS and charity legislation makes it difficult for NHS charities to achieve and demonstrate independence. It is therefore vital that NHS charities have the opportunity to move to independent charity status. My constituents in Erewash, like so many others across the UK, are extremely generous in their support for charities. It is important that every barrier, whether perceived or real, is removed, to allow maximum generosity and altruism.

I want to touch on Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. As my hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills has said, despite the hospital’s location in London, and owing to the specialist nature of its work, it provides a truly national resource for children with some of the most severe and complex illnesses imaginable. I am sure that at least one child in at least one family in every constituency has benefited from the healthcare provided by Great Ormond Street hospital. Like every hospital, whether generalist or specialist, it has fantastic doctors and nurses, and a whole host of healthcare professionals who together make our NHS the envy of the world. I am sure that the whole House will agree that we owe them a great debt of gratitude for the work they do.

A number of years ago, I had the privilege of seeing at first hand, in a professional capacity, the work of Great Ormond Street hospital. We often see news of the groundbreaking work it does. There was a good news story recently about the innovative work carried out on gene editing, which means that a one-year-old girl is now in remission from blood cancer. That is fantastic news for the girl and her family, and it also gives hope to other families in similar situations. I am sure that, without J. M. Barrie’s generous and powerful donation of the rights of “Peter Pan” to Great Ormond Street, such work would not be possible.

The first time this Bill came before this House, I was rightly corrected by my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Mr Rees-Mogg) when I suggested that J. M. Barrie would have been cheering from the Gallery if he had been able to hear that his wishes are to be continued as a result of this Bill. My hon. Friend pointed out that the good author would have been ruled out of order for cheering from the Gallery, but I am sure he would have been cheering very quietly if he had been here today.

The Bill provides for some much-needed changes to legislation, and it will benefit NHS charities generally and Great Ormond Street hospital specifically. I commend it to the House.