Small Charitable Donations Bill passes third Lords reading

19 Dec 2012 News

The Small Charitable Donations Bill, which provides the legislation for the gift aid small donations scheme, passed its third reading in the House of Lords yesterday.

The Small Charitable Donations Bill, which provides the legislation for the gift aid small donations scheme, passed through its third reading in the House of Lords yesterday.

The Bill had both its second and third readings and did not go to the committee stage, so no amendments were made.

Baroness Hayter did urge the government to commit to a review that will ask “whether the Bill is achieving all that we hoped for it” in two years, as opposed to five.

However, Lord Newby replied that the review will in fact be after three years. He described this as "a relitively standard period after a scheme has come in" and said that HMRC publishes national statistics on the cost of charitable tax relief three times a year.

"Once up and running, HMRC will publish details about the gift aid small donations scheme," Lord Newby added. "These will be national statistics."

House of Commons amendments

Some amendments to make the GASDS more accessible were, however, made last month when the Bill went through its earlier reading in the House of Commons. These were passed at its third reading – the final stage of its journey through that House before it went on to receive another three readings in the Lords.

Now that the Bill has passed through both the Commons and the Lords, both must now agree on its exact wording before it can be passed and become an Act.

There is no set time period for this, and a Bill may go back and forth between each House (known as ‘ping ponging’) until both Houses reach agreement. Once both agree on the final version of the Bill, it can receive Royal Assent to become an Act of Parliament and enter into law.