CFDG welcomes announcement of Charities Bill
Howard Lake | 26 November 2003 | News
The Charity Finance Directors’ Group today warmly welcomed the announcement of a draft Charities Bill in the Queen’s speech.
As a member of the Charities Bill Coalition, CFDG has been campaigning for the implementation of Home Office recommendations on charity reform published earlier this year.
The CFDG expressed disappointment however that some sections of the media had used the announcement to focus on perceived negative aspects of the Bill, most notably those relating to the regulation of public fundraising. The CFDG expressed its sadness that the inclusion of a Charities Bill had been used as an excuse to attack charities. The CFDG says that charity finance directors fear that this will lead to a decline in confidence in a sector that performs a significant public good, and plays a major part in bringing about change in society.
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Shirley Scott, Chief Executive of CFDG, said: “We are pleased that the Government have recognised the huge importance of charities, and the need for regulatory reform, by placing a draft Bill in the Queen’s speech. We are looking forward to seeing the definitions of charitable purposes being set out in a modern statute, instead of being based on case law and analogy going back 400 years.”
For a snapshot of what various voluntary sector leaders were hoping for from the Queen’s speech, read “Queen’s speech: public services and voluntary sector wish list” at SocietyGuardian.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.