News

An overhaul of 400-year-old charity law will mean that charities will have to prove their activities have a public benefit, writies Sally Gillen.

The draft Charities Bill sets out 12 areas under which charities can operate but it does not provide a definition of what is meant by public benefit.

They include the advancement of education, religion, health citizenship or community development arts and amateur sports.

Home office minister Fiona Mactaggart said the public benefit test would be the “bedrock” of charitable status but she added that it would be left to the Charity Commission to decide on a case-by-case basis if an organisation’s activities fitted that definition.

Under the Bill, the Charity Commission will have improved accountability and a new independent tribunal will be established that will deal decisions made by the commission that charities are unhappy with.

Measures also included in the Bill are payment for certain services carried out by trustees and a power to allow them to apply directly to the commission for relief from personal liability where they have made honest mistakes.

It is hoped that giving improved guidance and advice to trustees may help charities recruit the high calibre people needed for the job.

Mactaggart said that some of the UK’s charity laws that are 400 years old were in need of “urgent modernisation”.

The National Council For Voluntary Organsations welcomed the move. Chief executive Stuart Etherington said: “There is a clear and immediate need to reform charity law. The current system is complex, outdated and confusing to the public.”