The government has announced that it supports in principle the idea that charities should be required by law to declare how much of their spending has gone on political and communications work and how much of their funds they got from the government.

In its long-awaited response to the separate reviews of the Charities Act 2006 by Lord Hodgson and the Public Administration Select Committee, the government has today accepted in principle the PASC’s recommendation that the Charity Commission should require charities to declare these figures in their annual returns, and said it would consult on the issue.

It also supported in principle the PASC proposal that the Commission should require charities with income above £5,000 to declare how much of their funding was received from government or other public sources and how much from private donations.

It said: “As a first step we would encourage the charity sector to take the lead in improving the information that charities provide about their political and campaigning activities.

“We will work with the Charity Commission to explore the potential for information on political sand campaigning activities, and on charities’ income sources, to be capture and disclosed in a proportionate way through existing processes. Any future changes would be subject to public consultation.”

No changes to political campaigning rules

However, it agreed not to make any changes to the existing rules on political campaigning by charities, stating that “preserving the current position will protect charities’ independence and their important campaigning and advocacy roles.

“It will continue to be for the Charity Commission to consider on a case-by-case basis whether a charity has overstepped the mark in terms of any political or campaigning activity.”

And it rejected the PASC idea of requiring ministers to make a written statement to Parliament whenever the government makes a grant to a charity involved in political campaigning.
The government said: “Government departments must be responsible for the proper use of public funds, but cannot be responsible for knowing and reporting on the activities that charities, as independent entities, undertake with their own funding.

“Many charities in receipt of public funds also, using other sources of funding, engage in campaigning and political activity: it would be impractical to require a written ministerial statement in every such instance.”