The Charity Commission Publishes Statutory Guidance

15 Aug 2013 Denise Copeland    Last updated: 12 Aug 2014

Following a public consultation earlier this year on its draft guidance, the Charity Commission has published statutory guidance on the public benefit requirement.

When charities are called forward to register with the Charity Commission, they will have to explain how they meet the public benefit requirement on the application for charity registration. 

Charity trustees are also required to have regard to this statutory guidance on an ongoing basis in running the charity and they will report annually to the Commission on how the charity meets the public benefit requirement.   It is essential therefore, that charity trustees read this statutory guidance to help them understand what is meant by the public benefit requirement.

The Commission also intends to publish supporting guidance on each of the 12 charitable purposes in due course.

The Commission is advising all organisations granted charitable tax status by HMRC to check that they are on the Commission's deemed list as not all charities recognised for tax purposes are appearing on this list.  For more details on this please see the Commission's website.

For detailed information on the charity law reform journey so far, please see our charity law reform webpage

denise.copeland@nicva.org's picture
by Denise Copeland

Governance and Charity Advice Manager

[email protected]

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