Public benefit amendment defeated in the Lords

Finance | Gareth Jones | 1 Nov 2005

An amendment to the Charities Bill requiring the Charity Commission to 'consider the effect on public benefit of the charging policy of any charity' was lost to a vote at report stage in the House of Lords Last month. Lord Phillips of Sudbury proposed the amendment because of concerns that existing case law about public benefit gives very little guidance as to its definition.

The case of Re Resch, which is the main authority, appears to many charity lawyers only to require that charities that charge high fees for their services must merely show that the less well-off are 'not entirely excluded'.

NCVO has been pressing on this issue and expressed disappointment with the result of the vote and chief executive Stuart Etherington (pictured) said: "The government has failed to properly consider the case for the amendment and has not provided the reasons for its rejection. It is important the Charity Commission takes up the responsibility for this as we believe that the Charities Bill does not address the impact of fees on public benefit. The government has said that the Commission already has the necessary powers. It is now incumbent on it to demonstrate that this is the case and to use them."

Directory: Charity Commission | National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) | Office of the Third Sector
Who's Who: Sir Stuart Etherington

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.