Northern Ireland to start charity registration in 2013

Governance | Kirsty Weakley | 21 Jan 2013

Registration of charities in Northern Ireland should begin this autumn after the bill to amend the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 gained Royal Assent last Friday.

The next step is for the Charity Commission Northern Ireland (CCNI) to begin a consultation on its public benefit and registration guidance, which it will publish on its website on 4 February.

Chief charity commissioner Tom McGrath (pictured) said: “The Commission is delighted to welcome the news that Royal Assent has been received and we now have a robust Charities Act. The legislative problem that has held up registration to date has come as a great source of frustration for the Commission and we appreciate the patience of all working in the charity sector.”

CCNI will now hold 12 consultation events over 13 weeks for charities, stakeholders and members of the public interested in charity registration.

It estimates that there are between 7,000 and 12,000 waiting to be registered and warned that “registration will not happen overnight”.

Before full registration begins there will be a pilot involving 20 organisations. Charities do not need to do anything at the moment, the regulator advised.

Charity registration in Northern Ireland was put on hold in 2010 after a technical issue meant that the primary legislation needed to be amended to clarify the public benefit requirement.

The new public benefit requirement in the bill means that charities have to demonstrate that they have a charitable purpose which benefits the public.

Directory: Charity Commission for Northern Ireland

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.