A few highlights from Commons' third sector debate

The House of Commons debate on the government's Third Sector Review last Thursday (18th October) covered some interesting points in its five hour ramble. The Hansard record is here.

There was some argument between Labour and Conservatives on the issue of campaigning by charities. Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband appeared to rule out a change in the law that would allow charities to dedicate all their resources to political campaigning, although the government supported Charity Commission guidance that "charities can dedicate all of their resources to political campaigning for a period of time". See Third Sector news item at
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/News/754056/ (registration required).

Former third sector minister Fiona Mactaggart raised the issue of the Community Champions Fund, set up in 2000 to give grants of up to £2,000 to help people start projects in their communities (in England), which is to be scrapped by Department for Children, Schools and Families. More on this in Plaza Charity News Alert at http://www.plazapublishing.co.uk/champion.html. Phil Hope, charities minister, gave assurances on trying to get new Communities Department community grant schemes in place by next April.

Phil Hope also said, when summing up the debate, that he expects to publish summary of responses on the Gift Aid review later this autumn and "to discuss any proposals arising from the consultation with the sector ahead of next year’s Budget".