# Mixed response to Home Office plans from Charity Finance Directors' Group

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2003/12/03/mixed-response-home-office-plans-charity-finance-directors039-group/
- Published: 2003-12-03T16:52:49+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

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.

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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](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/files/collections -CFDG response.doc) | 76.5 KB |

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