Ms Helen Martin:

I will start with the Chair's final point, on the two new heads mentioned in our submission to the committee. The first of those relates to the charitable purpose of a charitable organisation. The proposal is for a new section, section 42A. The reason for this proposal comes out of other observations we have seen and comments people have made around what they see as the obligation for charities to notify us of every little change. That was never intended. This particular new section aims to address the point I mentioned previously about changing an organisation's charitable purpose. Given the importance of that, we have suggested a discrete section to deal with that. As seen in the explanatory notes, there is already a provision in relation to charities that change their names and a requirement that charities notify the Charities Regulator in advance of doing that. I noticed there was a kind of incredulity from some other witnesses that were before the committee about that provision. This section is really important. I want to give a practical explanation for that. It relates to what we see every day. If a charity changes its name without telling the Charities Regulator, it is possible that it may change its name to a charity name that already exists on the register. It is also possible that it may change its name to something that does not indicate what it does as a charity. That is not something we would approve. Again, it is about transparency and the public knowing what a charity does. There are really good reasons behind that. Having said that, the only thing we can do in that situation is take a prosecution against a charity. When people have come to us after making a change without letting the Charities Regulator know, it has been because they did not realise. It has been a genuine mistake. In such circumstances, we have worked with them and highlighted to them the reason it is so important. The new section we have proposed is around that. It involves putting a similar provision in place for something that is equally if not even more important, particularly to the public; namely, changes to the charitable purpose of a charity as reflected in a charity's main object.