Charities Act unlikely to make it onto statute books in 2005, says NCVO
Howard Lake | 2 March 2005 | News
The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) is not optimistic that the Charities Bill will make it onto the statute books this year.
NCVO Chief Executive Stuart Etherington said: “It is disappointing and frustrating that the Charities Bill will almost certainly not make it onto the statute books this year, but this should be seen as delay not defeat. It looks like the voluntary sector will have to wait a bit longer for the much needed reform of its 400 year old law.
“Having worked hard on this process for over five years, and more recently with the support of the Coalition for a Charities Act, NCVO will be calling for the re-introduction of the Bill by the next government. We hope that the high levels of cross party support we have already seen for this legislation and the thorough scrutiny it has already been subjected to will allow its rapid progress through the next Parliament.
He welcomed the constructive support from Government, Conservative and Liberal Democrat front benches on the Committee Stage of the Bill. However, he felt that “the length of time spent by the House of Lords scrutinising a Bill that has already been subject to extensive consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny, in combination with the impending General Election, has been the Charities Bill’s undoing”.
He added that “With fifteen months passing between the publication of the Strategy Unit’s report on charity law reform in 2002 and the announcement of the draft bill in the Queen’s Speech in November 2003, NCVO knew then that time would be tight. This was not helped by delays in the publication of both the draft bill and the Bill itself.”
NCVO was putting its faith in its Election Manifesto, launched in February, which calls on parliamentary candidates and the next government to support the introduction of the Charities Bill in the first Queen’s Speech following the election if it fails to make it onto the statute books this year.
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.