The Social Services and Community Committee has examined the Carter Trust Amendment Bill and recommends that it be passed. We recommend our amendment unanimously.

This is a private bill sponsored by Mike Butterick MP. The bill seeks to wind up the Carter Trust and dispose of its assets. The bill proposes to do so by:

• amending the will to enable the winding up of the trust

• allowing the Carter Society’s rules to be amended without the approval of the Minister of Health

• enabling the Public Trust to distribute the Carter Trust’s assets.

Section 7(a) of the Act includes a requirement for net income from the Trust to be used for “paying the costs of keeping in proper order the grave of the testator”. Clause 6 of the bill would repeal section 7 entirely, and replace it with a new section 7 providing conditions of the Trust’s termination.

We heard from the Carter Society that in 2023, when changes proposed by this bill were being considered, it signed an affidavit agreeing that “the Society undertakes to maintain the grave of the late Mr. Carter as a condition of approving the proposed scheme”.¹ The Society has been responsible for this since then.

We note that the upkeep of Mr Carter’s grave was not included in the original will, but was included in the 1961 Act.

We considered whether this matter should be included in the bill. Because the original will made no provision for the upkeep of the grave, we consider that it was not within the scope of Mr Carter’s original intentions. We are therefore comfortable not including it in legislation. We do, however, consider this matter important. We have received assurances from the Society that the grave site will continue to be maintained, and are satisfied with how this will be handled.

We recommend minor and technical amendments to clauses 7 and 8. We also recommend one major amendment to the bill as introduced, in relation to ministerial powers.

Section 17 of the principal Act states that certain rules of the Society may not be altered, added to, or rescinded without the consent of the Minister of Health. Clause 9 of the bill would repeal section 17.

We note that section 12 of the Act sets out that the Society has the power to charge and recover any fixed amount from any person residing in the new Carter Home. It also states that the Minister of Health may fix the maximum charges. The bill as introduced proposes no changes to section 12, despite the ministerial powers in Section 17 being repealed.

We considered whether section 12 is necessary, given that the other powers of the Minister would be repealed. We sought further information from the Ministry of Health. The ministry advised us that section 12 of the Act may be redundant, because:

• fees for long-term residential care are controlled by the Residential Care and Disability Support Services Act 2018, which sets a nationally agreed maximum contribution for contracted care services

• the Carter Court Care Home is a signatory to the Age-Related Residential Care Services Agreement, and it is not standard practice for facilities under this agreement to require ministerial involvement in setting fees.

We understand that removing section 12 would not affect the amount that residents of the Carter Court Care Home are required to pay for contracted care services, as these are already controlled by the Residential Care and Disability Support Services Act.

We therefore recommend that, for consistency, the bill be amended to insert new clause 7A, which would remove the ministerial powers provided for in section 12.