Charity Commission guidelines issued this week should reassure churches and organisations that the new legal requirement to demonstrate the public benefit of religion should not be onerous, the Evangelical Alliance has said.
19 December 2008
Charity Commission guidelines issued this week should reassure churches and organisations that the new legal requirement to demonstrate the public benefit of religion should not be onerous, the Evangelical Alliance has said.
Initial concerns that the requirement would be overly demanding for churches have been allayed following consultation between the government, the Charity Commission and religious groups including the Evangelical Alliance.
The Alliance’s Head of Public Affairs, Don Horrocks said, "The Commission is to be commended for having consulted and listened and ultimately produced guidelines for churches and religious charities which are in the main clear, balanced and common-sense in nature.
“Churches and other religious charities should feel comfortable about satisfying the public benefit requirement which should not be onerous, and the guidelines will be a valuable aid to compliance.
“We have always believed churches would have little difficulty in demonstrating the benefits they provide to the public, and these guidelines have confirmed this.”
Dr Horrocks added that the guidelines represent the final lap of what has been a long engagement with a complex process in which the Alliance has frequently expressed concerns, most of which appear to have been met.
The new guidelines, resulting from the 2006 Charities Act, apply to all religious charities whose financial year began on or after April 1, 2008.
While religious public benefit was previously always automatically presumed by the law, the new legislation means churches and religious organisations now have to show this in an annual report.
“We are grateful to the Commission for seeking to understand and work closely with organisations such as ours so that the end product is workable and appropriate,” he said.
“All religious charities now need thoroughly to acquaint themselves with the guidelines and make the relatively modest adjustments necessary to fulfil the new requirements."
An analysis of the guidelines will be available in the next edition of the Evangelical Alliance’s PQ, in the week beginning January 19. To download PQ.
The full Charity Commission guidelines, and further information, for charities whose aims include the advancement of religion can be found at:
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Library/publicbenefit/pdfs/pbreligiontext.pdf
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Library/publicbenefit/pdfs/lawrel1208.pdf
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Library/publicbenefit/pdfs/resrel1208.pdf
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