Subjects:

Charities

Contents:

1. Overview

2. Charitable purpose and the public benefit test

3. Requirement to register

4. Regime for exempt and excepted charities

5. The Charity Commission

6. The Charity Tribunal

7. Supervision by the Charity Commission and regulation of land transactions

8. Alteration of governing documents

9. Powers to spend capital and mergers

10. Trusteeship

11. The charitable incorporated organisation

12. Audit and examination of accounts

13. Fundraising

14. Public charitable collections

15. Miscellaneous amendments

Appendices:
1. Recreational Charities Act 1958

2. Charities Act 1992

3. Charities Act 1993

4. Charities Act 2006

5. Charities Act 2006: Implementation Plan (Cabinet Office, Office of the Third Sector)

The new Charities Act 2006 signals a radical overhaul of the legislation affecting charities. Its far-reaching changes affect virtually all aspects of charities law, including:

• Expansion of the four heads of charitable purpose to thirteen categories
• An emphasis on public benefit, so that charities will have to demonstrate what they do that benefits the community
• Widened regulatory powers for the Charity Commission and a new Charity Tribunal which will have the power to revisit the Commission’s decision-making
• New rules on restructuring and charity mergers, including the protection of legacies on mergers
• The option for charities to adopt a new corporate structure as ‘Charitable Incorporated Organisation’
• New rules regarding the remuneration of trustees and the power to spend capital
• A new framework for the regulation of public charitable collections.