The Charity Commission has published its new public benefit guidance, after being ordered by the Charity Tribunal to rewrite it after the independent schools case.

The new version is split into three short, high-level guides available both in online and offline formats:

• Public benefit: the public benefit requirement
• Public benefit: running a charity
• Public benefit: reporting

The Commission said that the guides explain what is required to show that an organisation is a charity (by having purposes that are for the public benefit), what trustees’ duties are in carrying out those purposes for the public benefit, and how trustees should report on the public benefit their charity provides.

They also explain that the trustees of charities which charge fees for services or facilities that the poor cannot afford must make provision for the poor to benefit. A spokeswoman said: “It is for trustees – not the Commission or the courts – to decide how to do this, but they must act reasonably and make more than a minimal provision.”

The Commission was ordered by the Charity Tribunal to rewrite its public benefit guidance after the Independent Schools Council mounted a successful legal challenge to it two years ago. But the first draft of the new guidance, issued for consultation last summer, attracted criticism for being too confusing and difficult to navigate around in its online format.

It appeared initially as various sections connected by links, but several sector representatives complained it was hard to follow with readers taken round in circles or directed out of the guidance altogether.

The Commission has taken this advice on board and reformatted it, and added an offline version to the online one.

The new guidance separates the public benefit requirement in relation to charitable status from the public benefit test in relation to the charity’s operations.  The Commission hopes this will reassure charitable schools and other charities that charge high fees, that they will not have their charitable status removed if they fail to run their charity for the public benefit.

Elizabeth Chamberlain, senior policy officer at NCVO, said the regulator has “made good work of the challenging job of distilling centuries of case law into guidance for trustees”.

However, she added that the guidance cannot give trustees confidence in their decision-making in every possible situation.

The new guidance is available on the Commission’s website.