The Charity Commission’s director of policy and communications, Sarah Atkinson, warned charities that the regulator would be concerned about charities that deliberately flout the Lobbying Act.
Speaking at a panel discussion on the impact of the general election, hosted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales last week, she said: “As it stands the law is in force and charities do have to abide by it. As the charity regulator, if a charity chose to ignore it we would have serious concerns. It is the law as it stands and whether or not you agree with it you have to comply with it.”
Atkinson also said that she was “glad” that Lord Hodgson will be reviewing the Act and collecting data throughout the election about the impact the Act has, as “before we had estimates of what we thought might happen”.
She added that the Commission is doing similar work, saying: “We are going to look at how in practice and in the modern environment charity campaigning is working and whether there is any lesson there for us and our guidance.”
A number of charities have already said that they intend to ignore the Act including Children England, Lloyds Bank Foundation and SCVO, which is not registered with the Commission but with OSCR in Scotland.
Last month Kathy Evans, chief executive of Children England, said that her charity will ignore the Lobbying Act and not let it “quell” the voice of the charity sector.
Today she told Civil Society News that: “We don’t believe that we need to register. We have looked at the requirements of the Act and we have a clear mandate from our membership to campaign for children and that is what we are doing - without any attempt to target or endorse any political party.”
She explained that when she said Children England would ignore the Act she meant that she planned to ignore the “intention of the Lobbying Act to make charities fearful of campaigning”.
Children England launched its campaign ‘Children at Heart’ in February urging all politicians to make children’s issues a priority during the election.
