Charity registration takes a step forward
Howard Lake | 24 September 2012 | News
New wording to help define ‘public benefit’ in the 2008 Charities Act for Northern Ireland has been proposed and should clear the way for the full implementation of the Act in 2013.
The proposed new wording is the same as that found in charity legislation in England and Wales, which places the principal emphasis on the public benefit requirement under charitable purpose as opposed to including a prescribed charity test in legislation which is found in Scottish charity legislation.
The proposed amendment will not affect the requirement in the Act that no particular purpose should be presumed to be for the public benefit. There will be no presumption of public benefit for certain types of charity as had been initially considered as a potential option for the Bill.
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It is anticipated that the new amended legislation will be in place in the autumn. The Charity Commission will then be in a position to issue new draft guidance which is to be consulted upon, probably early next year. When completely resolved, the Register of Charities can then be established by the NI Charity Commission.
In the absence of a prescribed public benefit test written in legislation, it will be up to the Charity Commission to promote awareness and understanding of the public benefit requirement, as is one of its objectives. Charity trustees will look to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance for direction.
Once published, this guidance should be able to explain to trustees what is meant by public benefit, explaining benefits and highlighting potential problem areas. NICVA commented that it “looks forward to the Charity Commission’s consultation on its public benefit guidance”.
The proposed new wording relating to public benefit is:
1.(1) For section 3 of the 2008 Act (the “public benefit” test) there shall be substituted the following section
“The public benefit requirement
3.(1) In this Act “the public benefit requirement” means the requirement in section 2(1)(b) that a purpose falling within section 2(2) must be for the public benefit if it is to be a charitable purpose.
(2) In determining whether the public benefit requirement is satisfied in relation to any purpose falling within section 2(2), it is not to be presumed that a purpose of a particular description is for the public benefit.
(3) In this Act any reference to the public benefit is a reference to the public benefit as that term is understood for the purposes of the law relating to charities in Northern Ireland.
(4) Subsection (3) is subject to subsection (2).”
(2) This section shall be deemed always to have had effect.
- NI charities bill takes another step forward (27 November 2012)
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.