§ Lord Moynihanasked Her Majesty's Government:
In view of paragraph 4.26 of the Cabinet Office Strategy Unit report Private Action, Public Benefit: A Review of Charities and the Wider Not-For-Profit Sector (September 2002) which states that "to maintain their charitable status, independent schools which charge high fees have to make significant provision for those who cannot pay full fees", what is meant by (i) "high fees"; and (ii)"significant provision". [HL468]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin)The Strategy Unit report,Private Action, Public Benefit, was published on 25 September 2002 as a consultation document. Its 61 recommendations set out a package of measures which aim to modernise the law and enable a wide range of organisations to be more effective and innovative.
Paragraph 4.26 describes what happens now when those charities that charge fees which serve to exclude large sections of the population have to make provision for wider access for those who would be excluded because of the fees.
At present there is no systematic programme in place to check the public character of charities. The report recommends that an on-going review programme run by the Charity Commission should check the public character of such organisations. It proposes that the commission would identify charities likely to charge high fees and undertake a rolling programme to check that provision was made for wider access. This programme, it suggests, would be designed to minimise red tape and would not focus on any particular sector. Short returns would be issued which ask charities what they do in terms of widening access, such as making provision for sharing facilities. It is envisaged that for the majority of cases no further inquiry would be necessary beyond the initial return.
The report proposes that the Charity Commission, in consultation with charities likely to be affected and their umbrella bodies, would issue guidelines as to the level of access appropriate in particular circumstances.
Of course at the moment these are only proposals. The report is out for consultation until 31 December 2002, and we shall consider the responses to this, and all the other matters addressed in the report, very carefully.