DCH 293 Mind
From: Mind (The National Association
for Mental Health)
Date: 13 July 2004
To: Joint Committee on the
Draft Charities Bill
Mind (The National Association for Mental Health)
Submission
to the Joint Committee on the Draft Charities
Bill
Introduction
Mind is the leading mental health charity
in England and Wales. We work for a better life for everyone with
experience of mental distress by:
advancing the views, needs and ambitions
of people with experience of mental distress; promoting inclusion
through challenging discrimination; influencing policy through
campaigning and education; inspiring the development of quality
services which reflect expressed need and diversity; achieving
equal civil and legal rights through campaigning and education.
Summary
1. We broadly welcome the Government's
proposals for the Bill and support NCVO's submission to the Joint
Committee.
2. We would make specific comments
on:
3. Audit threshold - Although we
agree with the principle, Mind have slight concerns that raising
the threshold to £500,000 gross income may adversely affect
public confidence in the finances of charities.
4. Regulation of fundraising - As
a member of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Authority (PFRA)
Mind endorse the (PFRA) position on self-regulation. We share
the PFRAs concerns on the impact of implementation of the proposed
legislation and the additional burden this would place on charities.
5. Charitable collections - Whilst
we broadly support the proposals, we are concerned that notifying
the local authority of where and when charities will be undertaking
door to door collections will not be practical and that this creates
additional bureaucracy for charities. This particularly affects
our trading subsidiary, Minds Matter, collecting goods for sale
in Mind shops and we would seek to see clarification on how this
element would be addressed within the bill. Additionally, we
are concerned about the capacity of Local Authorities to undertake
this work and the impact this will have both on Local Authorities
and charities.
- Sponsorship and Trading - Mind endorses
the Charity Finance Directors' Groups (CFDG) submission on this.
The inclusion of an amendment to allow charities to undertake
trading without the need for a separate trading company would
reduce the burden, both administratively and financially of charities
if funds from trading and sponsorship were allowed to be received
directly by the charity. Mind would, therefore, welcome inclusion
of a clause to the bill on trading.
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