Lord Hodgson seeks views on the charity sector

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 17 Feb 2012

Lord Hodgson, who is leading a review of the Charities Act, is seeking views on the charity sector, including whether there are too many charities and whether charities should pay an annual fee to the Charity Commission.

The questions form part of two questionnaires, one for charities and one for the public, hosted on the Cabinet Office website.

Both questionnaires seek views on a range of topics, including whether there are too many charities, if charity trustees should be paid, and whether details of charities’ fundraising and administration costs should be made public.

Ideas mooted in the survey which circle around the perception that there are too many charities include a fee to register new charities, a ‘sunset clause’ for new charities, incentives to merge, and a periodic review for all registered charities.

The survey also states that “charities receive significant tax concessions (an estimated £2.4bn in 2010/11) as well as other advantages”, and asks whether there should be an annual fee, on a sliding scale, for registered charities to help cover the costs at the Charity Commission.

Lord Hodgson (pictured) said: “I was very pleased to be asked to carry out this review, the terms of which not only require me to look at the operations of the 2006 Charities Act but also to look forward as to how to help the sector in the future.

"I start the review with a blank sheet of paper and am looking to have the widest possible consultation before reaching any conclusions. I plan to cast the net wide including holding a series of regional meetings - it is important that the review should not become too M25-centred."

Who's Who: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts

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.