That this House congratulates over 50 charities for coming together to form the Unclaimed Assets Charity Coalition; notes that legacies are increasingly important to charities and constitute almost 50 per cent. of some charities' voluntary income; further notes that evidence received by the Treasury Committee indicates that there are hundreds of millions of pounds in unclaimed assets; further notes that some legacies are incomplete because of unclaimed assets left in dormant accounts which charities find difficult to identify and access; acknowledges that a register of dormant accounts would resolve this problem in a more efficient and secure way than the online tracing scheme recently created by the banks, buildings societies and National Savings and Investment (NS&I); welcomes the fact that the well-respected law firm, Withers LLP, has provided legal advice, since shared with Ministers, on the feasibility of a register; further notes that registers work in the United States and other countries without fraud, using only publicly available information; and urges the Government to ensure people's dying wishes to leave money to charity are respected completely by the inclusion in the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill of a reserve power for the creation of a register of dormant accounts, to be used should banks', building societies' and the NS&I's efforts to reunite charities with the entirety of legacies bequeathed to them, and thus money that is rightfully theirs, continue to prove inadequate.

That this House congratulates over 50 charities for coming together to form the Unclaimed Assets Charity Coalition; notes that legacies are increasingly important to charities and constitute almost 50 per cent. of some charities' voluntary income; further notes that evidence received by the Treasury Committee indicates that there are hundreds...