New rules on public collections on track for 2011

Neil Irwin
19 January 2010 - 9:27am
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• Funding

The new Charity Act defines two types of public charitable collection - collections in a public place and door to door collections. What does and does not constitute a public place is specifically defined in the Act. A charitable appeal is defined as an appeal to members of the public to give money or property by whatever means, which would include direct debit.

An organisation must have a public collections certificate and a permit to carry out a collection in a public place and a door to door collection. The public collections certificate will be issued by the Commission however the issuing of permits will be carried out by the new councils when they are up and running (post Review of Public Administration implementation).

The new legislation provides for local short-term collections which will be considered exempt from the requirement to obtain a public collections certificate and a permit to collect. A collection is a local, short-term collection if the appeal is local in character and does not exceed the prescribed period.

The provisions laid out in the Act do not cover lotteries (see NICVA Advice Note 9 for legislation covering lotteries) or internet fundraising.

These new rules are expected to become operational in 2011.

For the latest information on the progression of charity legislation, visit Charity Law Reform updates, where NICVA's briefing paper on the Charities Act can be downloaded, or contact denise.mccann@nicva.org.