[WiLT] Charity Commission consultation on Public Benefit of Moral or Ethical Belief Systems - closes 5 Jan 09

[WiL Admin]

Ethical belief consultation out this week

The Charity Commission has launched a consultation on draft
supplementary guidance it has produced on public benefit and charities
that advance moral or ethical belief systems.

The document, Public Benefit and the Advancement of Moral or Ethical
Belief Systems, is aimed at non-religious charities such as humanist
and rationalist charities.

Dame Suzi Leather, chair of the commission, said: "Non-religious
belief systems can be charitable because they advance other aims
regarded in law as charitable, such as the moral or spiritual welfare
of the community, education or health. We hope this further
consultation will be as fruitful as previous ones and we invite
responses from all interested groups."

The consultation comes after similar exercises on public benefit
guidance http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publicbenefit/default.asp
for fee-charging charities, those that relieve poverty and those that
advance education or religion, all of which closed earlier this
summer.

The Charities Act 2006 introduced the requirement for all charities to
report on the public benefit they provide. General guidance
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publicbenefit/default.asp on
public benefit was published by the commission in January.

(From Third Sector)


Consultation on draft supplementary guidance on Public Benefit and the
Advancement of Moral or Ethical Belief Systems
- Introduction and how to respond (HTML)
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publicbenefit/pbmor.asp
- Draft supplementary guidance (PDF 129kb)
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/publicbenefit/pdfs/pbmor.pdf
- Analysis of the law underpinning Public Benefit and the Advancement
of Moral or Ethical Belief Systems (PDF 58kb)
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/publicbenefit/pdfs/pbmora.pdf

The deadline for responses is 5 January 2009.

>From http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publicbenefit/default.asp