Ure Elder Fund Transfer and Dissolution Bill: Final Stage
The next item of business is a debate on motion S3M-5817, in the name of David Stewart, on behalf of the Ure Elder Fund Transfer and Dissolution Bill Committee.
14:34
I am delighted that the bill has reached this final stage, and I am pleased to open the debate.
To recap briefly on how we got here, the Ure Elder Fund for Indigent Widow Ladies was set up in accordance with the wishes that were set out in the will of Mrs Isabella Elder. It was constituted by an act of Parliament in 1906 and it is a registered Scottish charity. Currently, its main purpose is the relief of impoverished widows who are connected with Glasgow or, specifically, Govan. However, one problem that the trustees of the fund encounter is that they are constrained by the terms of the fund to paying a maximum of £25 per annum to each beneficiary.
The fund was set up in the last century in the context that it was a modern and forward-thinking charitable body. Looking at the fund and its aims today, the trustees could see that the gap between its original intentions and the spirit of those intentions and its achievements was steadily widening. Having explored how to remedy the situation, the trustees concluded that the fund should be restructured so that it could help more people and have a broader range of activities.
However, the statutory nature of the charity meant that the only way to achieve that was for the trustees to introduce legislation, through the private bill procedure, that would transfer the assets of the existing fund to a new charitable trust and which would dissolve the existing fund. The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator concurred with the plan and, accordingly, a bill was introduced to the Parliament on 1 October 2009.
The bill is very straightforward—its single purpose is to transfer the rights, properties, interests and liabilities of the Ure Elder fund to a new charitable trust, the Ure Elder trust. In doing so, it will dissolve the fund. A few weeks ago, we debated the preliminary stage report by the Ure Elder Fund Transfer and Dissolution Bill Committee. Parliament agreed to its general principles and in the usual course of events, we would have moved on to the consideration stage to deal with amendments to the bill. In this case, no amendments have been lodged and we have used provisions in the Scotland Act 1998 and standing orders to enable us to truncate the procedure and move straight to the final stage.
As was mentioned in the preliminary stage debate, the bill has not taken much time to pass through Parliament and some may say that it has not excited great interest in committee or in the Parliament—despite my best intentions. However, it would be wrong to equate the time spent on the bill and the interest in it with the outcome, and I put on record my thanks to the other committee members, Nanette Milne and Shirley-Anne Somerville, and the clerks, particularly Sarah Robertson, for all their help in administrating the bill’s passage. The changes that will be wrought if Parliament passes the bill this evening will be significant for the trustees and for future beneficiaries of the trust.
That said, before I move the motion in my name, I want to return to one aspect of the process that the bill committee raised in its preliminary stage report, which relates to the situation of other charitable bodies that were set up under an enactment and which may require modernisation. The Government has said that it will review the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 in due course and will consider whether there is a more efficient method of reorganisation for certain types of charity. It is questionable whether bodies that work hard to raise funds and are mostly set up to benefit the public should spend time and resources on pursuing private legislation, with the attendant costs and time commitment that that process demands. However, that is a debate for another day.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that the Ure Elder Fund Transfer and Dissolution Bill be passed.
14:39
As David Stewart noted, when it was constituted, the Ure Elder fund was a modern and forward-thinking body, which was set up by a modern and forward-thinking lady. In the preliminary stage debate, I spoke of the remarkable nature of Mrs Isabella Elder. She married into a remarkable and notable family. When I became a member of the committee, as a North East MSP, I little realised that I would come to know so much about Govan and Isabella Elder.
Isabella Elder’s father-in-law was David Elder, who is often described as the father of marine engineering on the Clyde. Her husband, John Elder, a marine engineer and owner of the Fairfield shipbuilding yard was apparently an enlightened employer, who, among other things, provided schools for the children of his employees. He initiated a pattern of philanthropic works that was continued on a larger scale by his widow, Isabella.
Elder Park was established in 1885 by Mrs Elder as a monument to her shipbuilder husband. She wanted to give the people of Govan healthful recreation through music and amusement, the music being provided in the bandstand that used to be in the park.
Statues of the husband and wife can still be seen in the park. John Elder stands beside one of the compound engines that underpinned Fairfield’s success, and Mrs Elder is depicted in a statue by the Scottish sculptor, Archibald Shannon, dressed in academic robes to denote her honorary doctorate from Glasgow University in 1901—which was quite a feat for a woman at that time.
Elder Park library, built with funds that were given by Mrs Elder, is the only surviving Glasgow branch library, and predates the Carnegie libraries. Apparently, Mrs Elder insisted on Sunday openings for the library, in order to make it accessible to working people—as I said, she was quite farsighted.
I can understand why one of the trustees to the fund, Dr McAlpine, felt moved to write a book about Mrs Elder. It is entitled, “The Lady of Claremont House: Isabella Elder—Pioneer and Philanthropist”. Claremont House was Mrs Elder’s home in Glasgow for the 36 years of her widowhood. Mrs Elder certainly justifies a book about her life and works, and we could speak at length about her achievements. However, in relation to the specific achievement of the Ure Elder fund, I simply want to say that I commend the trustees of the fund for seeking to free up its workings and for seeking out new beneficiaries.
The £25 that the trustees are allowed to give recipients under the terms of the act that set up the fund was a significant amount of money at the time. However, over 100 years later, that amount of money is clearly trifling and is of no real value to potential beneficiaries. By changing to a modern charitable trust, the trustees will be able to disburse more significant amounts of money and should be able to attract the interest of more people who could derive meaningful benefit from the intended largesse of Isabella Elder.
The trustees have made a great deal of effort and incurred a significant amount of expense in the process of bringing a bill to Parliament to repeal the act that set up the Ure Elder Fund for Indigent Widowed Ladies. Their efforts, which will enable them to proceed with their plans to more meaningfully benefit more recipients of the funds that are at their disposal, will be justified when the trustees of the newly created trust meet to discuss and agree on the new applications for the funds. I wish them well in their efforts.
The Elder family name and spirit lives on in the name and works of the fund—which will soon, we hope, become a trust.
I ask Parliament to support the motion at decision time today.