Mixed response to Home Office plans from Charity Finance Directors' Group
Howard Lake | 3 December 2003 | News
The Charity Finance Directors’ Group (CFDG) today gave a mixed response to Home Office proposals for new regulations on how charities undertake public collections.
Replying to a Home Office consultation, CFDG welcomed the Government’s proposal that street and face-to-face collections should come under a modernised and comprehensive system of regulations. They endorsed plans for local authorities to have the power to refuse charities permission to undertake face-to-face collections where such collections would cause ‘public nuisance’ or where the area targeted did not have enough ‘capacity’ to sustain the collecting.
They warned however, that the planned ‘Lead Local Authority’ system, with local authorities assuming the Charity Commission’s current role in determining charities’ general suitable to collect, was unworkable.
Instead, CFDG urged that the Charity Commission should decide which charities were eligible, ensuring greater consistency and transparency.
Francis Ingham, CFDG’s Policy and Campaigns Manger, said: “The charitable sector warmly welcomes Government plans to modernise how collections are regulated. It is right that face-to-office collections should be regulated effectively -that’s manifestly in the interests both of the sector itself and of the giving public.
“However, the plan for a ‘Lead Local Authority’ system is simply unworkable. It would be inconsistent and cost both charities and local authorities substantial amounts of time and money. A far better option is to let the Charity Commission decide whether individual charities should be allowed to undertake collections: that’s the course we’ll be urging on the Government.”
For further information, please contact: Francis Ingham at CFDG on Tel: 020 7793 1400
A copy of CFDG’s response is attached below.
Notes to Editor:
1. The Charity Finance Directors’ Group was set up in 1987 and is an umbrella group that specialises in helping charities to manage their finance-related functions.
2. CFDG’s 900 plus members are responsible for the finances of charities with a wide variety of income levels. Over 60% of the top 500 charities are members of the CFDG. Between them our members manage some £10 Billion in charity income per year.
| collections -CFDG response.doc | 76.5 KB |
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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.