WIREDGOV

Commission consults on extra religion and poverty guidance

CHARITY COMMISSION News Release (06/08) issued by The Government News Network on 29 February 2008

The Charity Commission has today launched consultations on draft supplementary guidance for charities on public benefit, and is calling for responses. The draft guidance - Public Benefit and the Advancement of Religion, and Public Benefit and the Prevention or Relief of Poverty, follows the publication of general guidance on public benefit in January 2008.

Under the 2006 Charities Act, for the first time all charities - including charities which advance education or religion, or relieve poverty - must show that their charitable aims are for the public benefit. The two key principles of public benefit are that there must be an identifiable benefit, or benefits, and that benefit must be to the public, or a section of the public.

The draft supplementary guidance on Public Benefit and the Advancement of Religion explains how the principles of public benefit apply specifically to charities advancing religion. Issues considered include the meaning of advancing religion as a charitable aim, and suitable terminology to use in defining what is a charitable religious belief.

The draft guidance considers what the public benefits of religion might be, and when they might be affected by issues of detriment or harm. It also confirms that the Commission does not have the remit (or the desire) to change or try to modernise long-held religious beliefs.

The draft supplementary guidance on the prevention or relief of poverty explains how the principles of public benefit apply specifically to charities for the prevention or relief of poverty. Issues considered include the meaning of poverty in different contexts, how relieving and preventing poverty can be understood in charity law, and possible wider benefits to the community of relieving poverty.

The draft supplementary guidance proposes that relieving the poverty of people whatever the reason for their poverty, including people who are denied benefits by law, can still be for public benefit, and asks for suggestions on circumstances where relieving poverty might not be for the public benefit. It also considers the public benefit of benevolent funds and family poverty trusts.

To accompany this draft supplementary guidance, the Commission has also taken the opportunity to publish new draft guidance on the Promotion of Social Inclusion, as this is an area in which many poverty charities, as well as other sorts of charity, are also engaged.

Launching the consultations, Chair of the Charity Commission Dame Suzi Leather said,
"For the first time, charities advancing religion or preventing or relieving poverty will have to demonstrate that they have charitable aims that are for the public benefit, and so we have prepared this supplementary guidance which is tailored to their needs.
Like all charities, the trustees of charities advancing religion will have to identify and report on how their charity's aims are, and are carried out, for the public benefit. We appreciate that some trustees of those charities may find it difficult to put into words what their charity does that is for the public benefit. Our draft supplementary guidance on Public Benefit and the Advancement of Religion is designed to help them do so.
For charities established for the prevention or relief of poverty, the public benefit requirement provides a new opportunity to consider what the concept of poverty, and the different ways in which it can be prevented or relieved, means, in current social and economic circumstances, in this country and internationally.
We consulted widely last year on the general principles of public benefit and have responded to much of the feedback received. We hope these further consultations will be as fruitful, and we invite responses from all those with an interest."

The consultation documents are available on the Commission's website at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk or can be ordered by telephone on 0845 300 0218 from Monday 3rd March onwards. The consultations close on 30th June 2008.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator for charities in England and Wales. See http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk for further information or call 0845 300 0218.

2. The consultations on draft supplementary guidance on Public Benefit and the Advancement of Religion and Public Benefit and the Prevention or Relief of Poverty are the first two of four consultations on the public benefit of specific types of charity that are being launched by the Commission over the next few weeks. The other consultations will be on Public Benefit and the Advancement of Education and Public Benefit and Fee-charging. These will be published in second week of March.

3. The Charities Act 2006 (which received Royal Assent in November 2006) gives the Charity Commission a new objective, "to promote awareness and understanding of the operation of the public benefit requirement." The Act gives the Commission responsibility for ensuring all registered charities meet the public benefit requirement and for providing guidance on what the requirement means. The Act also requires charity trustees, who now have to report on their charity's public benefit, to have regard to the Commission's public benefit guidance.

4. Previously, charities which were established to advance education or religion or those relieving poverty were presumed to have aims which are for the public benefit, and didn't have to demonstrate this further, unless there was evidence to the contrary. The Charities Act 2006 removes this presumption and now all charities have to demonstrate that their aims meet the public benefit requirement.

5. The new guidance published on 16th January 2008, Charities and Public Benefit - the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit, is available on the Charity Commission website at http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk