HC Deb 29 June 1899 vol 73 cc980-1
MR. ALFRED PEASE (Yorkshire, Cleveland)

I beg to ask the hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton, as representing the Charity Commissioners, whether he is aware that in the year 1837 and 1838 the municipal charities of the City of York were placed under the control of a body of thirteen trustees, and that the number of trustees through various circumstances became reduced in 1896; whether, in I accordance with former procedure, certain names were approved in conference between the surviving trustees and the City Corporation, and these names submitted to the Charity Commissioners for confirmation; whether after long delay the Charity Commissioners have intimated their intention to add five other names in addition to the eight agreed upon by the trustees and the Corporation; and whether he is able to state what reason there is to depart from what has been the invariable practice for over sixty years with respect to the number of the trustees?

THE PARLIAMENTARY CHARITY COMMISSIONER (Mr. GRANT LAWSON,) Yorkshire, N.R., Thirsk

The facts are generally as stated in the question of my hon. friend. There is no particular reason for the limitation of the number of trustees to thirteen. That limitation and the fact that municipal trustees are often elderly gentlemen has resulted in the past in the speedy reduction of the number of acting trustees to a figure unduly small. To confine the new body to thirteen would compel the Commissioners to reject some of the names submitted to them by resolution and memorial. The responsibility for the appointment of trustees rests with the Commissioners and not with the Corporation or the surviving trustees, but the Commissioners propose to appoint all the gentlemen whose names have been suggested, thus raising the number of trutees to 18. Before doing so they will publish all the names in the locality so as to elicit objections, if there are any, to the personal fitness of the gentlemen whom it is proposed to appoint.

MR. J. E. ELLIS (Nottinghamshire, Rushcliffe)

On what ground did the Charity Commissioners arrive at the decision to increase the number of trustees from 13 to 18. Under what power did they act?

MR. GRANT LAWSON

There is no limit by law or under the scheme. They may appoint as many as they like.