Members of the House of Lords have called for tighter regulation of fundraising, which would see the Fundraising Standards Board replaced, during the third reading of the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Bill yesterday.
Sir Stuart Etherington’s review of fundraising regulation is due to be published shortly, and is expected to recommend that the bill be used to strengthen regulation of fundraisers, but yesterday’s third reading of the bill was the Lords’ last opportunity to debate the bill before it makes its way through the Commons.
Labour peer, Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town introduced an amendment, which was subsequently withdrawn and not voted on, that would have forced all charities raising more than £1m per year to join the FRSB to prompt discussion of the issue and signal to the House of Commons that the bill “is not yet adequate”.
She said: “There has been widespread acceptance by the government, the charities and even the so-called regulatory bodies — the code-setting institute and the Fundraising Standards Board — as well as by the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which is carrying out its own inquiry, that the self-regulatory system failed.”
“My judgment is that a pure self-regulating system will no longer be acceptable,” she added. And she said that for a new regulatory body “the letters FRSB should not be used: it will not be a fundraising standards board, whatever it is”.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire, Liberal Democrat, added: “Clearly, there is need for tighter and more visible regulation. A number of charitable trustees have not understood how active and responsible their role should be, and these matters need to be addressed.”
He also suggested that there should be a sessional committee in the House of Lords to look at charity issues.
Baroness Young of Old Scone, Labour, said: “There has been a bit of a witch-hunt this summer. I am not saying that charities are getting it absolutely right, but there has been a huge focus on those charities that, from time to time, were getting it wrong, and on the admitted gross inadequacies of the Fundraising Standards Board.”
She added that the FRSB was “so unfit for purpose” that “whatever new regulatory function comes forward is called some entirely new name”.
Baroness Young also cautioned against giving the Charity Commission a greater role.
“I do not think, in the 45 years that I have been connected with charities, that I have ever seen a Charity Commission that feels more hostile to the sector that it undoubtedly is regulating, but which it is also there to promote and enhance. I believe that the Charity Commission needs to examine its soul on how it is currently behaving and how it has done for the last year,” she said.
Lord Bridges of Headley, the Cabinet Office’s spokesman in the Lords, said that: “One point on which I think there is now broad agreement is that the current system is too complex and has failed to deliver the standards that the public and Parliament expect.”
But he did “not want to pre-empt the outcome of Sir Stuart’s fundraising review” and that Rob Wilson, minister for civil society, had promised to continue to engage with Lords while the bill makes its way through the Commons.
“My door is open to anyone who has been unable to express views as the bill progressed up to this point or who has thoughts on the Etherington review’s findings when they are published. We will also, of course, have an opportunity for further debate in this House on any amendments that may be made to the Bill. I would entirely support such measures, as I know that this House has an immense amount of expertise on the matters that we are discussing,” he said.
The bill was passed and sent to the House of Commons.
