Newsletter - August 2009
LawWorks for Community Groups
Welcome to the LawWorks for Community Groups newsletter featuring articles which may be of interest to lawyers advising charitable clients, particularly if charity law is not their usual field of work. We aim to keep you updated on key legal developments affecting the charitable sector, plus stories of broader interest to the Third Sector. We hope you find the newsletter useful and interesting – please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions.
Best wishes,
Ruth Thompson (Newsletter Editor)
In this issue:
Shelter lawyers win first pro bono costs order
Results of first public benefit assessments from Charity Commission
Procurement law is not at odds with Compact, report concludes
Freedom of Information Act will not apply to charities
Fast-track British citizenship through volunteering now a legal right
New Equality Bill clause aims to protect volunteers from discrimination
Keep it legal: cross-border regulation
RNIB chair: Charity law needs overhaul
Shelter lawyers win first pro bono costs order
Paul Jump, Third Sector, 17 July 2009
Award will go to the Access to Justice Foundation to support fee-free legal work for charities.
Lawyers acting pro bono for Shelter have won the first ‘pro bono costs order' of £20,000, which will be used to support further cases where they do not take a fee.
Shelter solicitors John Gallagher and Marie Burton, and barrister Andrew Walker of Maitland Chambers were representing a family who had been threatened with eviction in a dispute over the terms of a sale and leaseback scheme on their house. The family were just above the income threshold for eligibility for legal aid.
The lawyers won the case, plus a £20,000 cost award - the amount that would have been chargeable if they had been charging for their services.
Under the Legal Services Act 2007, the money will go to the Access to Justice Foundation , a legal charity chaired by Lord Goldsmith, a former Attorney General.
The foundation will use the money to support national and regional programmes to promote further pro bono work.
Results of first public benefit assessments from Charity Commission
VolResource, 16 July 2009
The Charity Commission has published its first public benefit assessments under the Charities Act 2006, which looked at a small number of private schools, care homes and religious organisations. The news headlines are inevitably about the few which failed to make the grade and are required to take action within 12 months if they are to remain as registered charities. The regulator for England and Wales says "It is too soon to draw from our first round of public benefit assessments any firm conclusions about the ability of charities in general, or certain types of charity, to meet the public benefit requirement. However, we think charities might find it helpful if we set out some general points of interest and initial observations about what we have learned from this exercise so far, alongside our emerging findings from carrying out the assessments."
News release here, or go direct to 'Emerging Findings'.
The Scottish regulator OSCR has welcomed the report, saying "It is reassuring to see such convergence between Scotland, and England and Wales, with regard to public benefit. ...It is clear that the Charity Commission has taken a very similar approach to OSCR, and that consistent themes are emerging when examining the public benefit that charities provide." OSCR news item .
Procurement law is not at odds with Compact, report concludes
David Ainsworth, Third Sector Online, 30 July 2009
Findings should put an end to questions about compatibility, says Compact Voice.
European procurement law is compatible with Compact principles, according to a guide published this week by the Commission for the Compact .
The document, called The Compact and Procurement Law , provides answers to frequently asked questions about the relationship between procurement law and the Compact, the agreement that sets out how public bodies and third sector organisations should treat each other.
The report, compiled with third sector legal specialists Bates Wells & Braithwaite , is intended to help people who commission services and third sector organisations that work with the public sector.
It was published in response to frequent questions to the Compact Advocacy Programme , which is run by the NCVO , suggesting that the two sets of legal principles might not be compatible.
Full article
Freedom of Information Act will not apply to charities
Paul Jump, Third Sector, 28 July 2009
The Ministry of Justice has decided against extending the Freedom of Information Act to cover charities that deliver public services.
The ministry ran a consultation between 25 October 2007 and 1 February 2008 on whether to extend the list of "public authorities" covered by the act to "contractors who provide services that are a function of a public authority".
However, in a response issued this month, the ministry said that the benefits of bringing charities under the auspices of the act would be significantly outweighed by the "inevitable" negative impact on their charitable causes brought by the extra cost of compliance.
But it added that the Government would "expect charities to respond as openly and promptly as possible to reasonable requests for the information they hold".
Fast-track British citizenship through volunteering now a legal right
Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 22 July 2009
New act speeds up approval for applicants who have been 'active citizens'
Immigrants applying for British citizenship will have their applications fast-tracked if they do voluntary work, under measures contained in the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act , which became law yesterday.
The act introduces an "activity condition" that allows immigrants who have been in the UK for five years to gain citizenship within a year rather than three if they can prove they have been an "active citizen" by volunteering.
New Equality Bill clause aims to protect volunteers from discrimination
Kaye Wiggins, Third Sector Online, 22 June 2009
Charities could be taken to employment tribunals if amendment becomes law.
A new clause has been proposed in the Equality Bill that would allow volunteers to take their organisations to employment tribunals over discrimination claims.
Tim Boswell , Conservative MP for Daventry, has put forward an amendment to the legislation proposing that volunteers should be treated in exactly the same way as employees in cases where they claim to have been discriminated against.
The Equality Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, reduces nine existing pieces of legislation into a single act that aims to make the law on discrimination more accessible. Boswell's new clause states that, with the exception of matters related to pay, "all rights of employees under this act are deemed to extend to persons who work as volunteers without remuneration; and all duties of employees and their employers to avoid discrimination are deemed to extend to volunteers working without remuneration".
Boswell told Third Sector that, if adopted, this would be the first time volunteers' rights were guaranteed by law.
Keep it legal: cross-border regulation
Andrew Studd, Third Sector, 21 July 2009
The Calman Commission's recent observations on the effects of Scottish devolution highlighted the regulatory impact that the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 has had on 'cross-border' charities that operate in England and Wales and also in Scotland.
Calman's observations reflected the concerns that a number of commentators have raised since the act's conception. Since 2006 and the creation of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, cross-border charities have faced two different regulatory regimes.
This will be complicated further with the passing of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, which established the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. The OSCR says that of the 3,000 charities it has assessed, 530 are cross-border charities.
This is a relatively small proportion, given the number of charities on the Charity Commission's register. Presumably they are also some of the sector's larger organisations, so they should be in a better position to deal with the administrative requirements. But there are certainly challenges.
RNIB chair: Charity law needs overhaul
Paul Jump, Third Sector, 14 July 2009
Kevin Carey calls for a new statutory definition of social gain.
Charity law should be swept away and replaced with a new statutory definition of social gain, according to Kevin Carey, chair-elect of the RNIB.
Carey, who steps up to the role from vice-chair on 23 July, told Third Sector that the "legal superstructure" of charity law, in addition to company law, was unnecessary, heavy-handed and hindered charities.
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