'Transfer of lottery funding power to Scotland would be better plan' - Mason

East End MP John Mason has criticised proposals in the Calman report to unify charity regulations across Scotland and the rest of the UK, proposals which have also been heavily criticised by the volntary and charity sector.  Unfortunately, Labour representatives have given their backing to the Calman report despite this damaging recommendation to return powers to the hands of Westminster.

Commenting on the Calman proposals, Glasgow East MP, John Mason, said: "It is extremely worrying that Calman has proposed changing Scottish charity legislation and regulation. I don't believe that returning charity oversight powers to Westminster is a good move, and it is unlikely to benefit charity and voluntary organisations in the East End of Glasgow.  It is essential that, given the separate legal system, charities in Scotland are regulated in Scotland.

"This recommendation exposes key flaws in the Calman report. In the evidence given to the Calman Commission there were several calls for lottery funding, a vital part of the charitable sector, to be devolved to Scotland.  Unfortunately, these pleas were among those that the Commission has completely ignored.

"If there had been a recommendation for power over the grant-awarding lottery organisations to be returned to Scotland, that would have been a better move.  In the long run that would undoubedly benefit charities and voluntary organisations in Glasgow East, and across the city.

Perhaps it would even have helped to reduce the 'lottery funding squeeze' - where funds made avaiilable to Scots charities are reduced because of sums allocated to pay for the London Olympics in 2012?"

Notes:

1. Writing in Third Force News, Steven Maxwell (Associate Director SCVO) comments: "Its case for re-reserving charity law to Westminster is supported by a claim that a number of organisations raised the issue with the Commission. But the only UK wide charity which submitted written evidence made no reference to the issue. Only theInstitute of Chartered Accountants Scotland and an independent academic raised the issue and then briefly. Yet they prevailed against the submissions of OSCR as regulator and of SCVO as the main representative body of Scottish charities to the effect that new cross border arrangements were bedding in well."

2. Also in Third Force News, Lucy McTernan, Deputy Chief Executive of SCVO said: "There are minor complications that arise from the different systems of registration of charities north and south of the border. There are more serious anomalies in the way the Inland Revenue views charities across the UK. Unfortunately what the Calman Commission is proposing is a muddle to fix this muddle, rather than making things clearer.

"Whats vital in this debate is that public have faith in the legal status of charities, and it reflects their understanding of what charities should be. Scotland has, quite rightly in my view, taken a stronger line on the public benefit required of charities. We would welcome greater co-operation and discussion of charity law between Westminster and Holyrood, but believe that the wishes of the Scottish people, as evidenced by the recent and widely supported Scottish Charity Act, must be respected."