Memorandum from the Voluntary Sector Forum
(DCH 318)
The Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum acts as
a Cornwall wide umbrella organisation for the Voluntary and Community
sector in Cornwall. We have 171 members from voluntary organisations
performing a wide range of activities. Some of our members have
turnovers of £1 million+ down to groups with a couple of
dedicated volunteers. As our membership includes all the local
network organisations either covering a geographical area (eg
East Cornwall Council for Voluntary Services) or issue/theme based
(eg Cornwall Domestic Violence Forum) we believe we represent
the views of the majority of the 3,000+ voluntary and community
organisations in Cornwall.
We have recently circulated a summary of the
Charities Bill to our members and asked for comments. This submission
has been drafted taking into account views given in their replies.
OUR MAIN
CONCERNS ARE
AS FOLLOWS
Role of the Charity Commission
1. New section 1A(3) provides that the functions
of the Charity Commission will be performed on behalf of the Crown.
We believe section 1A(3) should state clearly
that the Charity Commission is independent of government and that
it should uphold the right of charities to criticise government.
2. New section 1B(3)3 gives the Charity
Commission a completely new objective to "enable charities
to maximise their social and economic impact".
This section has raised concerns as it could
encourage the Charity Commission to issue directions as to what
constitutes social and economic impact, and thus unduly interfering
with the activities of charities. Also, achieving a social and
economic impact is not relevant for many charities.
We believe that this section should be removed
and that the Charity Commission should instead have to take into
account the nature of the charitable and voluntary bodies that
it regulates.
3. There is nothing in the Bill which requires
the Charity Commission to act in accordance with principles of
natural justice and the Human Rights Act.
A section to require the Charity Commission
to act in accordance with principles of natural justice and the
Human Rights Act should be added.
Public benefit
At present charity law presumes that certain
charities for the relief of poverty, the advancement of education
and religion are for the Public Benefit. This presumption is now
removed and all charities will have to show that they are for
Public Benefit. However there are no criteria in the Bill by which
Public Benefit is to be assessed—particularly for charities
that charge for their services such as fee paying schools, many
of which are charities.
The VSF feels that it would be very helpful
for the Bill to lay down some guidance as to what constitutes
Public Benefit to support genuine voluntary groups and to put
fee paying charities under stricter rules as to access and availability.
Payment to trustees to provide services
1. New section 73A provides for the first
time that the Trustees of a charity can be paid in certain circumstances
to provide services to the charity. An example would be a charity
which is a village hall which requires plumbing services and one
of the trustees is a plumber. This overturns the basic principle
that all Trustees should be volunteers but is subject to certain
safeguards.
There is a concern that this section removes
the presumption that trustees are volunteers. This will lead to
conflicts of interest and could reduce public confidence as the
public see that trustees can personally benefit. Also, the safeguards
are confusing. Smaller charities will often find it hard to interpret
the constitution to see whether these benefits are prohibited
or not. Different community groups will potentially be subject
to different rules and this is worrying where criminal penalties
apply.
Fundraising
1. The Bill proposes a unified scheme for
all public collections with certain exemptions such as a small,
local collection (for example carol singing) which do not require
a Certificate of Fitness nor a permit from the Local Authority.
The terms small and local are not defined but this provision does
appear to give flexibility to smaller organisations in Cornwall.
The Institute of Fundraising and the Charity Law Association do
not believe that this provision is fair on larger/national organisations
that may wish to collect and are calling for small, local collections
to require a permit from the Local Authority based on the capacity
of the area.
The VSF disagrees with the Institute of Fundraising
on the basis that small local collections should not require a
permit.
2. Door to door collections of money would
only have to notify rather than seek the consent of the Local
Authority. The Institute of Fundraising is of the view that door
to door collections represent an activity taking place in the
public domain and represent a potential risk to members of the
public.
We agree with them and would like safeguards
for door to door collections that are over-frequent, in appropriately
commercial or at inappropriate times of day.
July 2004
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