Baroness Hale of Richmond (CB)

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, for moving this amendment and for having had the skill to devise an amendment within the scope of the Bill. I would be failing in my duty if I did not draw your Lordships’ attention to the special report that was, very unusually, produced by the Select Committee on the Bill, on which served the noble Baronesses, Lady Fairhead and Lady Hayter of Kentish Town, and the noble Lords, Lord German and Lord Naseby, and which I had the honour of chairing, as the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, has already referred to. We were all deeply shocked by the impasse which had been reached in relation to the governance of the hall. As we know, the hall is a charity, yet its governance is largely in the hands of the seat-holders, who have a direct financial interest in the running of the hall. This, as we have heard, is wrong in principle, but the hall is understandably fiercely resistant, as we have also heard, to any changes which would risk jeopardising the relationship that seat-holders have with the hall. The Charity Commission, as we have heard, wished to impose a scheme upon the hall, and proposed to make a reference to the charity tribunal. It comes as something of a surprise that such references require the consent of the Attorney-General. Under the previous Administration, two Attorneys-General refused that consent. Nevertheless, a third Attorney-General, in her report to our committee, expressed her disappointment that the Bill was a missed opportunity to effect meaningful change to the governance of the hall. Of course, there was nothing the committee could do; we could deal only with what was in front of us, and this House can make only amendments which fall within the scope of whatever Bill the hall chooses to promote. That is why I have congratulated the noble Lord, Lord Hodgson, on his ingenuity in devising something which, however limited, is within scope. It is noteworthy that the promoters of the Bill removed another clause which would have brought the governance of the hall into even more prominence. I hope that the House will take note of the report, regret the impasse which has been reached, and perhaps express the hope that the Charity Commission will try again and that, this time, the current Attorney-General—for whom I have the greatest of respect—will not stand in its way. None of this, of course, is a reason to deny either the Third Reading or the amendment which the noble Lord has proposed.