03/05/2022
Charity law reform
Reforms set out in the Charities Bill 2021, has now completed its parliamentary journey, becoming the Charities Act 2022.
To recap, this new legislation (which only applies to England and Wales) implements a number of recommendations from the Law Commission’s 2017 Technical Issues in Charity Law Report which seek to make life easier for trustees and help them to maximise the benefits that their charity is able to deliver. The principal reforms seek to:
• Make it easier to amend a charity’s governing documents
• Simplify and add greater flexibility for charity’s entering into land transactions
• Changes to the regulations governing permanent endowments
• Allowing trustees to be paid for goods provided to a charity in certain circumstances
• Relaxed rules around making ex gratia payments without prior CCEW approval
• Removing some of the legal barriers to charity mergers
Although the Act came into force on the day it received Royal Assent, 24 February 2022, to be able to deliver these reforms requires a number of changes to CCEW’s systems and processes along with secondary legislation, and a plan is in place to gradually implement these between now and Autumn 2023.
Legislation: https://bit.ly/3pPuJCJ
Separately, the Dormant Assets Bill has also now received Royal Assent, becoming the Dormant Assets Act 2022. This expands the existing dormant assets scheme to include the insurance, pensions, investments, wealth management and securities sectors, looking to raise an estimated £880 million for good causes. Although the scheme operates across the UK, a consultation process will be launched this summer to consider what additional causes in England will be able to benefit from the scheme.
Legislation: https://bit.ly/3IZ8mSK
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