Tag: Voluntary Sector

Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech to the Prince’s Trust Volunteers’ Event held at St James’s Palace by Tuesday 4th June 1996.

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PRIME MINISTER:

Your Royal Highness, President Robinson.

I think we have all been impressed by that we have seen and heard here this afternoon. From all those who have benefited in different ways from the Prince’s Trust Volunteers Programme.

The motto of the Prince of Wales is “Ich Dien” – I serve – and at the heart of all volunteering is the concept of service. It is not what any of us takes out of society that counts, it’s what we put back into it.

Voluntary work is vital for any healthy society, and young people are the cornerstone of volunteering. Prince’s Trust Volunteers do much for their community, as we heard just a moment ago. There are many examples right around the country of volunteers helping with day care centres, working on local environmental projects, assisting disabled people. Making a real difference.

But the volunteers also do something for themselves. Most volunteers who were unemployed go on to jobs or full-time training. Those who already had jobs come back with new skills and a better understanding of the views of others in their community.

The Prince’s Trust Volunteers play a special role by bringing together a mix of unemployed people and those with jobs, for a full-time programme. People of different backgrounds and different abilities, who benefit from working together as a team.

That requires a substantial commitment from employers, who need to release staff for the programme. Companies like Marks and Spencer, British Telecom, Natwest, Sainsbury’s and Kwik-Fit have shown the way. They know the benefits their staff get out of the scheme. I hope others will follow.

The Government will certainly be continuing its backing. I have asked Roger Freeman to give a push to Departments to provide more volunteers from our younger employees. The Benefits Agency, the Inland Revenue and the Employment Service are already substantial suppliers of volunteers. And many other Government departments have now committed themselves to sending volunteers on the programme – and more will do so in future.

We will do so to maintain and strengthen our partnership with the Prince’s Trust, and to do what we can to help meet the target of 25,000 volunteers a year by the year 2000. I hope that the companies represented here – and others – will do likewise.

This is by no means the only action the Government is taking in this area. Two years ago I launched the “Make a Difference” programme to promote volunteering more generally. We will be spending several million pounds on new projects to provide local information points for volunteers throughout Britain. The new agencies will work closely with the Prince’s Trust, and with others, to help identify suitable candidates and suitable opportunities – and literature about the Prince’s Trust Volunteers is now also on display in job-centres.

I would like to give every young person between the ages of 16 and 25 the opportunity to take part in voluntary work. The presentations we have seen today make clear why we want to do that. Volunteering really does make a difference, to local communities and to the volunteers themselves. Programmes like the Prince’s Trust Volunteers make people believe in themselves, and in what they can achieve.

The first 10,000 Prince’s Trust Volunteers know that they made a difference. So will all those who follow in their footsteps. We are all grateful for your efforts, and for bringing us together today to see some of the results.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech to the Voluntary Services Overseas Annual Meeting, held at the Annual Meeting at the Institute of Education in London on Wednesday 26th October 1994.

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PRIME MINISTER:

I am delighted to be with VSO and its supporters today. You can look back with satisfaction on another year of outstanding VSO achievement, with some 1700 volunteers serving overseas. But the last year has also brought the sad news of the death of the VSO’s founder, Alec Dickson. We have seen in the tribute made to him today that it is because of his vision and determination in promoting the idea of voluntary service overseas that we are meeting here today. Of course VSO has moved on from the organisation he founded in the 1950s – but its fundamental ethos is as strong as ever.

Over recent years we’ve heard a great deal about the bad behaviour of that tiny minority of British people abroad – the louts and the hooligans. But in many parts of the world, this is a face of Britain people simply don’t recognise. The British people they meet are some of the many thousands of volunteers – many of them young – who go abroad to work for the good of others with VSO and other voluntary organisations. I would rather Britain was recognised by the qualities of basic decency, compassion and concern for the welfare of others that volunteers for VSO demonstrate. I wish that were given more recognition.

The heart of VSO’s work is humanitarian: to help other people help themselves through increasing their chances of making better lives and better prospects for themselves and their families.

Commitment to help others is an instinct for millions: a quality which we should all encourage. And Voluntary Service Overseas can be the entry ticket to a lifetime of service for others – a lifetime of commitment to voluntary work at home or abroad. It is not just the people in other countries who benefit – our own society benefits too.

The Government shares the aims and values of VSO. That is why we have increased the support we give to VSO. This year we are supporting your core programme with a grant of over £17m – more than double what we contributed five years ago.

It is an example of our similar aims that, more and more, VSO is working in partnership with Government Agencies – such as the ODA and the British Council – in areas as diverse as Nepal, Uganda, South Africa and Russia. On my recent visit to Russia I was particularly pleased that I was able to announce support through the Know How fund for VSO’s new programme under the East European Partnership to place volunteers in small business development, health service management and other areas. We hope there will be 35 volunteers in place there in the next 18 months.

THE BRITISH AID PROGRAMME

But our commitment to VSO is only part of a much wider programme. Britain has a quality programme to help poor countries. We are the sixth largest aid donor worldwide but this is by no means the only point. Our agencies are dedicated, practical and effective. The quality of what we do is recognised worldwide. We are in the lead in working for more imaginative debt relief programmes for developing countries.

There have been three significant international initiatives to relieve debt over the last six years. All of them British initiatives.

First, the Toronto terms in 1988 produced a reduction of about one third in the cost of servicing debts to some of the most poor and most indebted countries.

Next, I proposed terms in Trinidad four years ago which resulted in an immediate reduction in debt of up to two thirds for the countries involved. It has been remarkably successful. So far twenty two countries have benefited and nearly 3 billion dollars have been written off. But more still needs to be done.

That’s why, most recently, Ken Clarke has proposed – with considerable support from Commonwealth Finance Ministers – that the IMF should do even more to help these poorest countries by carefully phased and limited use of its gold reserves.

Actually, Overseas Development is something the British are rather good at.

Most people, when they think of our aid effort think of our response to emergencies and disasters – floods in Bangladesh, famine in Ethiopia, fighting in Bosnia – or more recently the devastating consequences of tribal conflict in Rwanda. We are there with quick and effective help. And we make a huge difference. When Lynda Chalker reported back to me after her first visit to Goma in July, I do not believe I had ever heard a more harrowing account of human suffering and sheer horror. Since then – I’m glad to say – we’ve done a great deal to alleviate that suffering and improve conditions – an effort which continues.

But, emergency aid is only part of the picture. Most of our efforts, like yours, go into longer-term developments – helping poor countries find long term solutions to problems of poverty – imparting skills and techniques to enable them to make a living. Giving them the wherewithal and training to help them to earn their own self-respect. As a result – in part – of our help many countries, once heavily dependent on help from outside are now able to earn their own way in the world. But with over a billion people living in absolute poverty, there is still an enormous challenge.

Over the last year and half I have seen a variety of projects which illustrate the achievements of our aid programme. These achievements are as diverse as the countries with which we work.

– In India last year I saw one of our slum improvement projects; it is transforming the lives of some 80,000 of the poorest families: improving health with water supplies and sanitation and expanding opportunities for people to earn income and support themselves.

– In Russia earlier this year I saw how we are helping to promote the transition to democracy and a market economy. I visited a Privatisation Centre supported by our Know How Fund. In Nizhny Novgorod I met farmers who were learning how to buy and sell shares in land and new businessmen who were keen to learn more about marketing their products. The Privatisation Centre is playing a key role in the transformation of old-fashioned state-owned enterprises in the region.

In South Africa last month I saw some of the positive results of our aid – and not just cricket pitches. With President Mandela, I signed an agreement on the £60 million of aid we have pledged to support areas which are vital to the country’s future: education, health, good government and encouraging small enterprises. The tremendous optimism and energy of the people I met in the townships of Johannesburg brought home to me how much our help is valued – and needed.

THE ROLE OF VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

Government programmes of this kind can achieve a great deal. But, as you know better than most, aid is not just the business of governments. We cannot and should not nationalise compassion. That would destroy the very foundation of what we want to achieve – the compassion of ordinary people and their desire to do something personally to help.

Contributions from private individuals and from businesses show the extent to which the British people remain committed to promoting development.

Volunteers who serve overseas play an important part in helping to give us in Britain a wider perspective on the world. They can help us to understand the needs and priorities of poorer nations. In international relations, volunteers can give us a unique insight into all the problems – social, economic, environmental which these nations face.

The experience of volunteering also develops the individual who volunteers. It draws out skills which might otherwise be under-used. It strengthens those values of self-reliance, responsibility, and respect for others – values which strengthen our society.

YOUNG PEOPLE AS VOLUNTEERS

When I was Foreign Secretary – a few brief glittering hours, rather less than Peter Carrington – I was concerned that the challenge of volunteering should be more widely available to younger people. When VSO was first founded in 1958, most of the volunteers were school leavers. The average age of a volunteer is now about 33. I would like to see younger people also having access to this kind of opportunity and experience as they did in the first years of VSO.

Often, when young people volunteer to work overseas it is from a sense of adventure – a desire to be independent – yet what begins as adventure can become a way of life and a way of building a sense of responsibility and the ability to put problems into perspective. We ought to widen opportunities for young people to contribute as volunteers. I am delighted therefore to hear of the establishment of your Overseas Training Programme sending students on assignments in developing countries. I was particularly interested to hear at first hand the experiences of two of the trainees a moment ago.

SUPPORT FROM OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT

The health and vitality of VSO depends strongly on its broad base of public support in the country. To maintain and develop this support, you have recognised the need to involve the public more actively in funding and providing practical help.

I welcome your plans to increase funding from the British public and from the private sector. Individuals and international companies and trusts should be encouraged to offer you financial support. Often, it is in their interests too, to do so.

It is also important to help the right people to serve overseas and so we welcome your ambition to involve employers in encouraging their staff to think about voluntary work.

Companies have much to gain from encouraging their staff to volunteer either in the UK or abroad. Increasingly, companies are working in partnership with voluntary agencies in the UK, sharing skills and experience.

Though there are practical issues which need to be considered, I believe more employers could derive substantial advantages by developing partnership with overseas voluntary agencies too – particularly companies with trading interests overseas. They need staff with initiative and experience abroad. Voluntary work can give those staff, especially younger staff, that experience much earlier in their careers than is often possible in the company itself. I know that VSO hopes to discuss all this with employers’ organisations and professional bodies. I should like to take this opportunity to express the Government’s support. But most of all I hope that those of you in the audience today from the private sector will be able to help and advise on the way forward.

The world we live in is changing faster than ever before. And, for all its turbulence, one of the irreversible features of modern life is the tapestry of links that we are constantly weaving across national and continental boundaries -links through trade, links through the electronic media, through travel, and through education and learning.

When I was a young child the outside world was far away; mass travel by jet airliner was a thing of the future. When the MCC toured Australia they spent weeks crossing the ocean by sea, not hours by air.

The young people of today see the world in an entirely different light. For them, experience of other nations is a commonplace. For them, it is the most natural thing in the world to reach out across the sea and work with the rising generation in other lands.

Young people have a curiosity and a breadth of vision many older people do not. They have modern skills many older people may never acquire. They are aware that, outside the highly developed countries, the huge rate of population growth makes this more than ever a young person’s world. Look at the townships of South Africa or the cities of Latin America and you will see the truth of that.

We must see this as an opportunity. We must make use of those young people’s enthusiasm for life. Understanding grows and cooperation follows when people meet and work and talk and build together.

People over 60 remember war right here in Western Europe. People under 30 find it inconceivable. And why? Largely because of the millions of invisible links between nations that they themselves have helped to develop in the course of their lives.

I have a hope – indeed, I have faith and confidence – that as we work for a new world order, it is the new world vision of so many younger people that will be one of the anchors of lasting peace.

A few weeks ago I called for an anti-yob culture. Well that culture is certainly alive and well in the. VSO. I am proud of your past achievements.

But even more, I am proud of what VSO and all its supporters will do in the years ahead and I wish you every success.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s address to the Charities Aid Foundation in London on Tuesday 5th November 1991.

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PRIME MINISTER:

I am delighted to have the opportunity today, I am delighted also, if I may say so, to see so many people here who care so deeply about charities; but I am delighted to have the opportunity today to review the government’s policy to the charitable sector and to look ahead at what the future may hold for that sector.

Before this audience of course the role of the voluntary sector needs no defence whatsoever. But alas even in this day and age not everyone recognises the sector’s scale and diversity. And there are still some people, for a raft of different reasons, who still see private charitable activity as a public shame.

I believe, frankly, that that is a nonsense and I am glad that such negative attitudes are now clearly on the retreat. Because the truth I believe is becoming more and more widely accepted that public provision could never replace the immense contribution of voluntary action, it never could and actually it never should. Voluntary action is often at the frontiers of what even the richest and most benevolent state could possibly provide.

It improves the lives of those people who are helped and in doing so I believe it also fulfils the lives of those people who do the helping. That is not of course the primary purpose of charitable activity but I believe it is one of the practical aspects of charitable activity that we ought to acknowledge and to welcome.

There are at the moment across the country about 1 million people involved in managing voluntary activities. Tens of millions more give time or money or often both and tens of millions of our fellow citizens benefit either directly or indirectly from the activities of the voluntary sector.

And I believe it is worth just a moment or two to try and put that in context. Just try and imagine what life would be like without charities, how many children I wonder might be left at risk without the NSPCC. How many hundreds of thousands of people abroad would have no hope whatsoever without Christian Aid? How dark and immobile would life be for many people without sight without the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association? And I wonder how many lives would be lost at sea without the remarkable activities of the RNLI. And just imagine, imagine the anguish of so many people if they could not pick up the phone in need and speak to the Samaritans.

I think it is worth just reflecting on the impact that has on the quality of life and the nature of society we have in this country. We refer to the voluntary sector. But in a sense voluntary sector is a misnomer, it is not a sector, it cannot be a sector because it permeates everything. What it is, because of the scale and diversity that it has now reached, is a part of the very fabric of the whole nation.

I have not a shred of doubt about the value of the efforts of all volunteers. Charities are not, and should not be seen, as the sticking plaster on welfare state. The activities of volunteers should be seen in a different activity, they should be seen as part of the cement that actually binds our society together. They are a very part of its stability and they give people the chance to deploy their skills and develop their potential. And wherever possible, everyone should have the opportunity to develop their abilities to the utmost and charities help them to do precisely that.

There are of course a vast raft of ways of meeting society’s needs. Some are best met by individuals, others by business, some by government. But alongside all of these, voluntary bodies have a vital role, they are close to people’s needs and they can respond quickly and flexibly to changing circumstances.

And I think there is a further point often overlooked by people. There are many people, proud, independent, perhaps in need of some assistance of some sort who are far more inclined to accept that assistance from the voluntary sector than they ever would be prepared to accept it from the government, but they need that help and the voluntary sector provides it.

And I think it is worth looking at some of the voluntary organisations and what they have done. It was, for example, voluntary organisations that responded first to the victims of crime, victim support schemes began in Bristol in the 1970s and have burgeoned since then, they met a need that clearly was there.

It was voluntary organisations that first pioneered the care of AIDS sufferers, something that many people would have pushed aside a little while ago, but it was the voluntary sector that identified the need and began to do something about it.

And it was voluntary organisations and the VSO and community service volunteers that first grew from the ideas of just one man – Dr Alec Dixon. And I think that is an important point and the point is clear, voluntary bodies do not just help, frequently they innovate as well and are ahead of the problems that government agencies of all sizes, under whatever government, often have not yet spotted and are often not in a position to deal with.

I believe that is a very important role for the voluntary sector and in the future we will be calling on that innovatory approach in the Children Act, implemented just last month. For the first time ever all concerned will be obliged by law to listen to the child’s voice, the voluntary sector will be fully involved in the planning and provision of services for children. And the act, again for the first time, places on the statute book the role of the NSPCC in investigating children in need of protection in parallel with statutory and other voluntary agencies.

I doubt whether anyone, anyone, knows accurately how many voluntary bodies flourish in the United Kingdom, but registered charities are measurable and are growing fast. In just 10 years, 30,000 more actually came into being. There are now 170,000, they come in all shapes and sizes from large organisations which employ professional staff to small local self-help groups.

I am immensely proud personally, and I believe we can all be immensely proud as a nation, of the fact that nowhere else in the world is there such a spread and depth of charitable activity.

In whatever we plan, the needs and ideas of the small groups must not be overlooked. Many of the little battalions are doing a big job with small resources, providing valuable services to people in their local community. But through all this activity, all this diversity, there is one consistent golden thread that runs continually. All those charities in their different various ways aim to improve the quality of life in one way or another. And so for those reasons I have no doubt whatsoever about the place of the voluntary sector in our society.

Let me say a word abut how the government sees that. The government wants a positive relationship with the voluntary sector, it wants to encourage it, it wants to support it and yes, from time to time, it wants to learn from it as well. There are of course difficulties in that relationship from time to time as there are in any relationship outside of fairy tale, but nonetheless we need to develop it and we intend to develop it.

I would like to see the development of clear cut relationships, embodied where possible in contracts, so that each party knows where it stands. And I do support a move towards longer term more stable patterns of support. Voluntary organisations, like businesses, need stability in order to plan their own activities and their own future. And every hour spent negotiating in Whitehall or the Town Hall about your grant is an hour not spent helping others doing the very work for which the organisation was formed and for which it is most suited.

But as we work for greater clarity, as we implement the results of last year’s efficiency scrutiny of government funding of the voluntary sector, we must be careful not to replace one problem with another. In the 1990s, I want to see the voluntary bodies established ever more firmly as a powerful independent force in our society.

The truth is that charity has no bounds of class or wealth or race, everyone can be a donor, everyone can give time, everyone benefits directly or indirectly from their activities. As Ralph Barendorf has put it, the strength of the voluntary sector is an index of liberty. The voluntary sector is very strong indeed in our country, the right of people to associate in a common interest or in the interest of others is a fundamental freedom and a fundamental good.

I cannot possibly hope to cover today the myriad aspects of the voluntary sector’s role or its relationship with government and I daresay if you thought I would I doubt many of you would have volunteered to be here today for it would have taken a very long time.

But perhaps I can in the time available to me single out three specific areas: first, the legal framework; second, financial support; and third, what we in this country can do for others.

There is a crucial component in promoting charitable giving and helping the sector to expand still further. And it is quite clear, and one I know that is dear to your hearts, charities must be seen to be well managed and well regulated. Bad publicity about one charity is often bad publicity for all, doubt can spread like a canker when a charity goes wrong.

People who do not really want to give use it as an excuse not to give, so donors must have confidence that their money will be used wisely and well and with accountability. And this is something of which the voluntary sector has long been all too aware. You have made it clear to us on many occasions that you did not see more effective regulation as a threat to charity, and nor is it. Indeed you saw it as a precondition of continuing success and I believe you are right in that judgment.

We have tried to respond to those concerns. In recent years we have discussed with you a new approach to the regulation of charity, one that offered to maintain the high standards while limiting unnecessary bureaucracy. With your help I hope and I believe that we have found the right balance.

And so we are publishing today, as your Chairman mentioned a moment ago, a Charities Bill which I know has been keenly anticipated inside the voluntary world. This bill will be a centre-piece of the coming Parliamentary session, it will provide a statutory framework for the proper management and the public accountability of charities.

I particularly commend the Bill’s four main themes: first, enhancement of the Commissioner’s ability to obtain information about the management of individual charities; second, where necessary, powers for the Commissioners to act speedily if they detect abuse; third, and critically important in many ways, clarification of trustees’ responsibilities, we do not intend to burden trustees unreasonably. I know the effort which goes into running charities and it is enormous, bureaucracy must not be in the business of stifling benevolence, but trustees have responsibilities to the public too, the vast majority of them fully recognise this, a few may not and we must ensure that they do not damage the reputation and activities of the majority.

So the Bill will therefore build in a legal foundation for the maintenance of good accounting practice in charities and it will ensure that anyone can obtain a copy of the charity’s accounts.

The fourth theme of the bill, is the tightening of control over professional fund-raisers. Their invention and their energy have been of immense value to the charitable sector, but a very few unscrupulous fund-raisers have abused the reputation of the rest of you, so the Bill will regulate the activities of professional fund-raisers to offer greater confidence to the public at large.

And our aim in this is not to tie up people in red tape but to open wider the floodgates of giving by ensuring even greater public confidence in charities themselves. I know that the voluntary sector understands the need for public confidence. The NCVO and the charity commission have set up a working party to look at improved support and training for trustees, the government has given the Commission an effective capacity for investigating and correcting the abuses that undermine public confidence, and above all the opportunity to reconstruct the Register of Charities. I hope that this programme will deliver a system of regulation and support for the charitable sector which will be unequalled anywhere in the world.

At present, Mr Chairman, the government provide substantial direct support for charities amounting to almost 2.4 billion pounds. Direct grants to voluntary organisations account for some 373 million, a figure well over double what it was ten years ago even when one takes account of inflation. But even more significant I believe is a revolution that has been brought about in the opportunities for people to give. Covenants have been made more attractive and more flexible; the pay-roll giving scheme has been introduced and I very much welcome the new campaign led by Russell Twisk on behalf of Readers Digest to extend it and I want to see public bodies try harder to promote this particular concept of giving; and all bequests to charity, all bequests to charity, have been exempted totally from tax and again I welcome the recent campaign to highlight the importance of making a will and remembering a charity when you do so, where there is a will there is a way and that way is the route to greater giving.

So our policies of wider ownership are yielding richer fruit year by year. I want to see charities get a good share of the wealth that is now beginning to cascade down and across the generations. And finally, as you kindly mentioned it yourself, Chairman, perhaps I might mention gift aid which provides tax relief for single deductions of 600 pounds or more by individuals and by companies. I was pleased to introduce this scheme when I was Chancellor, it had long been asked for, and I hope it is proving useful. And I have been far more pleased to see its growth, even in its first year, charities have already claimed tax refunds of over 35 million pounds on donations of almost 110 million.

Total tax relief therefore for charities, including income tax repayments, currently amounts to more than 800 million pounds. So in these ways I have outlined we have sought to encourage giving and have provided both mechanisms and incentives for people to give. And I know the voluntary sector will follow that through and encourage them to give as generously as they can. I hope they will do so for that generosity will go to a good cause.

I read with very great interest the statistics in the Charities Aid Foundation’s charity trends document. As Chancellor I probably had more opportunity than most to pour over Dryers Duss statistics and I came became perhaps too much of a connoisseur.

But the charity trends are different and the Foundation I believe does us a very great service in bringing these figures together. I know that they show a decline in the levels of typical giving over the year just past. I am unsurprised by that, quite frankly, it is inevitably one consequence of a recession such as the one from which we are now beginning to emerge. And it does illustrate another point, it does illustrate how very important it is that the battle against inflation succeeds and that inflation stays down and that we do not have another recession of the sort we are just emerging from. We saw during the 1980s a very strong growth in both personal and corporate giving, I want to see that growth begin again in the ’90s against the background of a stable, growing economy, and that is what I believe we are now on target to produce.

And as growth in giving returns it will be partly because of the framework the government has provided, but it will be for another reason as well. It will also be because of what the charities to do to promote the ideal of giving itself by individuals, by companies and by institutions too. And I greatly welcome what Willie Whitelaw and the Council of Charitable Support have done to promote giving and I welcome too the birth of the Windsor Group, I understand that are now discussing a campaign to promote the principle of charitable giving itself, a discussion I will follow with very great interest. And we will do what we can to help that campaign succeed.

I should like to stress here today the very great importance I attach to charitable giving by business and by industry. This country does have a proud tradition, the Rowntrees, the Cadburys, the Port Sunlight ventures, all have a resonance which still speaks to us. I know that many companies today recognise their responsibilities to the local societies in which they are based and to wider society generally.

And in recent years that recognition has grown and I hope it will continue to grow, we will do what we can to encourage it. At the risk of being invidious, I would like to mention in particular the work of Hector Laing and his colleagues who subscribe to the percent ideal, an ideal perhaps familiar to you, perhaps not, but an ideal whereby a company devotes one percent of its annual profits to charity.

Enlightened capitalism has a long history in this country, I am sure it has an even longer future and an ever improving one and we will join you in seeking to ensure that that comes about.

If I may turn, just for a moment, from home to abroad. I welcome the very heart-warming contribution which British voluntary organisations make in developing countries and not only in times of disaster. In more humdrum times too voluntary bodies attack the root cause of under-development through long-term projects which give poor people the means to be self-sufficient.

The overseas work of the voluntary sector should not be forgotten and it has grown dramatically and we have recognised its value. Last year British voluntary organisations received grants of over 88 million from the Overseas Development Administration, an increase of 35 percent on the previous year.

And the needs of the poorest most heavily indebted countries are acute and require urgent action. In Harare I was glad to announce that in the absence of full agreement in the near future in the Paris Club of creditor countries the UK will implement the Trinidad Terms initiative on enhanced debt relief.

And the effect of that I think is dramatic, it will reduce debt by around two-thirds for eligible countries undertaking economic reforms and if we can persuade all creditor countries to implement the initiative it will be worth 17 billion dollars to the poorest countries in the world, the largest debt write-off in history and in my judgment it is not a moment overdue.

Mr Chairman, the government is absolutely committed, no-one should be in doubt about that, absolutely committed to sustaining the success and growth of voluntary activity in Britain. We have a good model in this country but some proposals made in Europe in the past have shown little appreciation of the fact. And like so many institutions in Britain, the framework of British charity law sometimes does not look logical, but it does work, and I am pleased that some of the potentially damaging ideas once canvassed in Europe seem to have been laid aside. We will be vigilant to see that they are not revived in Europe in the future.

The framework now being considered by the Commission to help voluntary bodies operate in other countries may well provide a reasonable basis for progress, we will negotiate to ensure that framework is right.

But I see no reason to be defensive about our own position. I want us to take the initiative in discussion, to encourage our form of trust law, our forms of regulation, our forms of citizen involvement elsewhere. If the Charity Commission is a good way to do things then let us have more of them. And when we take the Presidency of the European Community next summer I shall want to examine whether we should make the development of voluntary activity a significant part of our programme during our Presidency.

An active voluntary sector has been persecuted and restrained in one part of Europe for close on 50 years. In central and Eastern Europe people are now struggling to build up voluntary organisations, they lack experience, they have no know-how, they confront attitudes of suspicion and leave it to others’ mentality that generations of state centralism have engraved.

If you believe, as I believe, that voluntary bodies are part of the bedrock of a democratic society, then you will, want to do all you can to help them grow in the East. Some of you I know are already doing that, it is not just bankers and businessmen that you find in the conference rooms of Prague and Budapest, it is charity trustees as well that you will find in those very same rooms.

President Havel has spoken of the need to create a civil society. we can help him, and others, to define a space, a safety zone, between the individual and the machinery of the state. I am therefore delighted to announce today the setting up of a new voluntary sector skills scheme – the Charity Know-How Trust. This is a special fund to which trusts and government will contribute in equal proportions. It will enable British expertise in the field to be channelled to where it is most needed, it is a seed-corn scheme which should enable a rich harvest to flourish. It will be available for all countries eligible to receive assistance from the Foreign Office Know-How Fund. I am delighted that the Charity’s Aid Foundation is providing the administrative back-up.

Through it, and through your own independent efforts, British voluntary organisations can help to weave the fabric of a free society in each country which takes part, you will be strengthening the new democracies of the East and there is every reason to do that, military, socially and economically, to build a safer future for us and our children and for everybody else in every part of Europe.

When British voluntary organisations help their new counterparts abroad, it will be in the central tradition of voluntary organisations themselves as volunteers, out of public spirit, not for private gain. The people involved in voluntary activity are usually modest, often anonymous, they do not seek our praise but they deserve it no less.

I hope, Chairman, that my presence here today will help to underscore the government’s respect for this sector, I am glad that there is already very active dialogue between many government departments and the voluntary sector, I want to see that dialogue widen and deepen in the 1990s.

For this government wants to support and promote more charitable giving, more volunteering and more business involvement in local communities throughout the United Kingdom. And we recognise that donations in time, or in kind, are just as important as donations in cash. We want to see more grant-making trusts set up in the 1990s, a very valuable contribution which wealthy individuals can make towards supporting voluntary organisations. We want to see more use of the tax-efficient measures designed to encourage charitable giving. we want more recognition of the needs of smaller, lower profile organisations. We want more recognition of the contribution of volunteers and we want more of the fruitful partnerships which began to emerge in the 1980s and which could benefit all concerned, the individual or company, the organisation and the wider community they serve.

If, Chairman, if we succeed in those aims, many millions of people who look to voluntary bodies for support or who find greater personal fulfilment through them, will feel and find that their own lives are enriched.

The outcome of that will be clear, it will be I believe a society which is increasingly enriched as well, that must be the aim of all of us. I know that is the aim of the voluntary sector, you may count on the government to support you in it.