Recommendation

The Government Administration Committee has examined the Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill and recommends that it be passed with the amendments shown.

This is a private bill. We report that the statements in the preamble have been proved to our satisfaction.

Introduction

This is a private bill with the aim of removing difficulties in administering trusts vested in Christ’s College which can no longer be applied in accordance with the original intention of donors or trust settlors.

Under the Christ’s College (Canterbury) Act 1910, the governing body of Christ’s College may use property held by the school in trust only for the purpose for which it was originally intended.

However, the trustees, under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, can apply to the High Court to approve a new trust purpose, but each trust variation requires a separate application.

This amendment bill would provide the governing body, in certain circumstances, with the power to apply property vested in the college to other charitable purposes that would benefit the college.

Circumstances in which the purposes of charitable trusts can be varied

In the bill as introduced, clause 5 proposes inserting a new subsection 4. This would allow trustees to vary the purposes of charitable trusts in certain circumstances. However, these circumstances differ from those set out in the Charitable Trusts Act.

There is an established body of case law regarding the exact meaning of certain wording of the Charitable Trusts Act.

We recommend that the wording used in the Charitable Trusts Act to describe those circumstances in which the governing body may vary the purposes of charitable trusts also be used in proposed subsection 4 in clause 5 of this bill. We also recommend inserting a new subsection 4A into clause 5 to allow the governing body to use for another purpose excess income from trusts that generate more than is necessary for their donated purpose. This is consistent with the Charitable Trusts Act. The Board of Governors of Christ’s College has assured us that before exercising the power to vary the original purpose of a trust, it will complete a detailed review of the trust to ensure, for the avoidance of doubt, that the original purposes cannot continue to be met fully.

New trust purposes

We were concerned that the generality of proposed subsection 3 in clause 5, referring to a new purpose for a trust as “for the benefit of the College”, could be interpreted to mean that, should the functions of the college change and encompass non-educational purposes, the trust property could be applied to non-charitable purposes. We therefore recommend inserting into subsection 3 in clause 5 a requirement for trust property to be used for charitable purposes.

We were concerned that trust property could be applied to purposes significantly different from those for which the trust was created. We therefore recommend adding a new subsection 4B to clause 5, requiring that this new purpose be “as close as reasonably possible to the purpose for which the property was given”. The Board of Governors has affirmed that it will ensure the alternative purpose determined for a trust is as similar to the original purpose as is reasonably possible, given the changed circumstances.