The Charity Commission has been advised to completely rewrite its proposed guidance on public benefit and the advancement of moral or ethical belief systems.

In its response to the Commission's recent consultation, which closed earlier this week, the Charity Law Association (CLA) argued that in general the draft guidance is "confusing, inaccurate and unhelpful" and that "the best approach would be to rewrite the draft guidance in its entirety".

A CLA working party, chaired by Francesca Quint (pictured) and including former chief charity commissioner Richard Fries, said that most humanist and secular groups do not meet the draft guidance's definition of a moral and ethical belief system, even though the guidance should be designed for them.

Basis of proposals ‘unclear'

The working party took issue with the Charity Commission's use of religious terminology and said that part of the problem it faced in replying to the consultation was that it was unclear quite what the Commission was proposing.

They had trouble deciding whether it was suggesting that the advancement of moral or ethical belief systems be accepted as a new charitable purpose or, rather, was addressing organisations with other charitable purposes (such as the advancement of education) which might, nevertheless, be described as advancing a moral or ethical belief system.

It concluded that the structure of the legal analysis part of Commission's consultation strongly suggested that the latter is the case and if so, "the consultation is misconceived".

Samurai code of ethics and drug use

The CLA also had concerns about the possible interpretation of the term ‘heightened awareness' within the guidance.

"When the term ‘heightened awareness' is Googled, websites referring to crime fighting within a community or fighting generally (ie. martial arts) are selected. Has the Charity Commission (or public) considered whether the promotion of the Samurai code of ethics, to which much of Japanese society still has regard, would be accepted as charitable in England and Wales?

"Further, heightened awareness seems to us to be quasi-religious and also begs the question: has the Charity Commission considered how a state of heightened awareness might be achieved? Would drug use be considered acceptable to the Commission if administered under careful supervision and for the purposes of achieving heightened awareness?"

As a result, CLA has recommended that the term be deleted to avoid confusion.

The Commission said it would consider the CLA's submission along with all others received. A spokeswoman said: "All responses will be taken into account as part of the consultation process and the development of the guidance, which will be published in due course."