Charities Act 1985
| Year | 1985 |
Charities Act 1985
1985 CHAPTER 20
An Act to make further provision with respect to charities in England and Wales.
[23rd May 1985]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Submission of, and publicity for, charities' accounts.
(1) The power of the Secretary of State to make regulations under section 43 of the Charities Act 1960 prescribing the information about a charity's affairs which is to be given in statements of account transmitted under section 8 of that Act shall include power, in the case of local charities for the relief of poverty—
(a ) to prescribe the forms in which such statements are to be transmitted, and
(b ) to require any such statements to include an itemised schedule (in the prescribed form) of all property currently held for the purposes of the charity, with an estimated value assigned to each item.
(2) In the case of such a charity, statements of account prepared under section 32 of the Act of 1960 shall be sent annually by the charity trustees to the appropriate local authority; and subsection (3) of that section (parochial charities to send statements of account to parish council etc.) shall not apply.
(3) Any statement of account sent to the appropriate local authority in pursuance of this section shall be kept by the authority for a period of at least 2 years; and during that period—
(a ) the statement shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable times, and
(b ) the authority shall, on the request of any person, supply to him a copy of the statement, on payment by him of the reasonable cost of making the copy.
(4) If so required by Secretary of State's regulations under the Act of 1960, a copy of the statement shall be sent by the authority to any other local authority specified in the regulations.
(5) In the case of a local charity for the relief of poverty, the charity trustees shall—
(a ) give such public notice as they think reasonable and justified, having regard to the resources of the charity and the extent of its area of benefit, of a place at which the statement can be inspected by members of the public, and
(b ) on the request of any person, supply to him a copy of the statement, on payment by him of the reasonable cost of making the copy.
The obligation on the trustees under paragraph (b ) of this subsection ceases in respect of any statement as from the time when subsection (2) is complied with in respect of it.
(6) It shall be open to any person to make representations to the Commissioners, in respect of a local charity for the relief of poverty, that the charity trustees have made default for a period of at least 12 months in complying with the Act of 1960 or this section in respect of statements of account.
(7) If such representations are made, the Commissioners may, if they think it a proper case for their intervention and after giving the trustees notice of the representations and inviting their comments, without any further or other application exercise in relation to the charity their jurisdiction under section 18 of the Act of 1960 or settle a scheme under section 19 of that Act (power to establish schemes, remove trustees, etc.).
(8) This section does not apply to an exempt charity.
2 Resolution by trustees of old charity to alter objects.
(1) This section applies, subject to subsection (11) below, to a local charity for the relief of poverty, where—
(a ) at least 50 years have elapsed since the date of the charity's foundation, or
(b ) it is subject to a scheme (whether established by the court or by the Commissioners) for the joint administration of two or more charities, and in the case of each of the charities comprised in the scheme at least 50 years have elapsed since the date of its foundation.
(2) If the charity trustees are of the opinion—
(a ) that the objects of the charity may fairly be considered obsolete or lacking in usefulness, or impossible of achievement, having regard to the period that has elapsed since the charity was founded, the social and economic changes that have taken place in that period and other circumstances (if any) relevant to the functioning and administration of the charity, and
(b ) that an alteration of the charity's objects is required in order that the charity's resources may be applied to better effect, consistently with the spirit of the original gift,
they may (subject to the following provisions) pass a resolution that the trusts of the charity be modified by replacing the objects of the charity by other objects, being in law charitable, specified in the resolution.
(3) The objects so specified must be, in the trustees' opinion, not so far dissimilar in character to those of the original charitable gift that this modification of the charity's trusts would constitute an unjustifiable departure from the intentions of the founder of the charity, or violate the spirit of the gift.
(4) The trustees must take such steps as are reasonably open to them to secure the approval to the proposed alteration of objects of any person identifiable as having been the founder of the charity.
(5) The resolution of the trustees must be unanimous and be in the form set out in Schedule 1 to this Act, or as near to that form as circumstances may admit.
(6) Having passed the resolution, the trustees shall—
(a ) give such public notice that they have done so as they think reasonable and justified, having regard to the resources of the charity and the extent of its area of benefit, and
(b ) send copies of the resolution to the Commissioners and to the appropriate local authority, accompanied in each case by a statement of their reasons for being of the opinions specified in subsections (2) and (3) above.
The trustees need not comply with paragraph (a ) of this subsection if they consider that, in all the circumstances, no useful purpose would be served by giving public notice of the resolution.
(7) The Commissioners may, when considering the resolution, require the trustees to provide additional information or explanation as to the circumstances in and by reference to which they have determined to act under this section or as to their compliance with this section; and the Commissioners shall take into consideration any representations made to them by the appropriate local authority and others appearing to them to be interested.
(8) The Commissioners shall, not less than six weeks or more than 3 months from the time when they receive a copy of the resolution from the trustees—
(a ) if it appears to them that the requirements of this section are satisfied in respect of the resolution, and that the proposed alteration of objects is justified in all the circumstances (treating the trustees' opinion under subsections (2) and (3) as prima facie well-founded and not to be set aside in the absence of contrary considerations), give to the trustees notice of their concurrence with the resolution, or
(b ) give them notice that they require further time in which to consider the case (but so that not more than an additional 6 months shall be taken for that purpose), or
(c ) give them notice that they do not concur with the resolution.
Any notice given by the Commissioners under this subsection (including any notice of concurrence, or non-concurrence, given after they have taken further time for consideration) shall be in writing, and they shall send a copy of it to the appropriate local authority.
(9) If the Commissioners give notice of their concurrence with the resolution then, with effect from the date specified in the notice, the trusts of the charity shall, by virtue of this section, be deemed modified in accordance with the terms of the resolution, and the trust instrument shall have effect accordingly.
(10) References in this section to a charity's...
To continue reading
Request your trial