Lord Hodgson yesterday told fellow members of the House of Lords that the charity sector has “reasonable concerns” about the lobbying bill and that “we have a lot of work to do in committee”.
The Conservative peer, who last year led a review of the Charities Act and is a former president of NCVO, was speaking during the second reading of the lobbying bill in the House of Lords and said: “We need to spend quite a bit of time in committee getting the government to explain in detail the practical implication of what is intended here.”
Hodgson specified that: “There is some important work to be done on coalitions of charities working together and the way that they have to report separately. It is incredibly bureaucratic and burdensome for every charity member of a coalition to have to report about all the other members of that coalition.”
Sector has 'misunderstood' the bill
Introducing the bill, Viscount Younger of Leckie sought to reassure Lords that charities would not be affected by the legislation, and said: “It is the government’s belief that the vast majority of charities and other groups campaigning for their preferred policies will not be affected by the bill.”
Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat) said that the bill had been “misunderstood” and he hopes that “during this debate, and particularly in committee, we will be able to reassure the many charities and smaller campaign groups that have been in touch with us that the bill is not about stopping them contributing to our democracy”.
During the debate, which lasted six and a half hours, Lords reiterated concerns about the bill itself and the speed with which it progressed through the House of Commons.
Call for further scrutiny
The Lord Bishop of Derby, who is trustee of Christian Aid, argued that “we should rejoice that so many charities, faith groups and voluntary groups want to be involved”, and called for a “a pause, and that the minister will be willing to sit down with representatives of charities, faith and voluntary groups to look at proper controls and accountability”.
Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws (Labour) was among those to warn that “this bill has been rushed unnecessarily through Parliament and that there has been inadequate time for the proper scrutiny and consultations that are vital for the improvement of any bill”.
Lord Greaves (Liberal Democrat) told the government it should make a fuller response to charities’ concerns: “When a whole sector is up in arms like that, simply telling it that it is wrong is not good enough.
"There should be argument and explanation and, I humbly suggest to my noble friends on the government front bench, a willingness to look at changing the bill to clarify it, to amend it and to improve it, is what is required.”
Last week the House of Lords Constitution Committee published its report on the bill and which raised “significant concerns” about the content and handling of the bill.
The committee stage in the House of Lords is scheduled to take place on 5 November.
Lobbying bill carefully timed
After the debate in the House of Lords ended at close to 10pm, discussion continued online, with the Labour Lord, Steve Bassam, tweeting: “Clear that large influx of new government peers has been timed to force the lobbying bill through Parliament with maximum haste minimum scrutiny.”
NCVO’s chief executive, Sir Stuart Etherington, welcomed the debate and said: “I hope the government will be willing to amend it further in order to avoid burdening voluntary organisations with complex and confusing arrangements that many will find simply impossible to deal with.”
