Charity News Alert
Campaigners begin lobbying for amendment to Charities Act
Gemma Ware
Representatives from the advisory group for campaigning and the voluntary sector met with the Ministry of Justice last week to lodge their interest in introducing an amendment to the Charities Act that secures the right of charities to campaign.
The group hopes to introduce the amendment through the Constitutional Renewal Draft Bill, one of the pieces of legislation announced this morning in the Queen’s Speech.
The advisory group has yet to discuss the wording of the amendment itself, but it is understood it would seek to redefine political campaigning to allow charities to undertake any form of political campaigning, except party political campaigning.
Ian Leggett, director of People and Planet and a member of the advisory group which is chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy, said the meeting was to “put down a marker” that they would like to see an amendment to the Charities Act.
“We’re trying to persuade the Ministry of Justice that this is something they should take on,” said Leggett. But he accepted it would be a longer-term project.
In the meantime, Leggett said the advisory group was “pushing hard” to get the best result from the Charity Commission’s revision process of its CC9 guidance on campaigning. “Until an amendment comes in, that’s in fact going to be the regulatory framework,” he said.
Last week members of the advisory group attended a meeting at the Commission as part of the regulator’s consultation on the revision of the guidance.
Also present were representatives from ActionAid and the NCVO, as well as Francesca Quint, a barrister for Radcliffe Chambers, who has expressed concern at the impact a loosening of the rules around political campaigning could have on donors’ willingness to support charities.
Leggett said he felt the meeting was very positive. “I thought they gave a really good impression of listening to what we’re saying.”
There was discussion about the dominant/ancillary rule, which the advisory group would like to see dropped altogether. Instead, it believes trustees should be free to engage exclusively in political campaigning if it furthers their charitable objectives.
During a debate in the House of Commons last month on the third sector review, both Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband and charities minister Phil Hope said that any decision about how much campaigning a charity could do under the law lay with the Charity Commission.
Part of the aim of in the Constitutional Renewal Draft Bill, which follows the government’s Green Paper, The Governance of Britain, will be to put into practice the Government’s commitment to making people proud to participate in decision-making at every level. The government intends to publish a draft bill for pre-legislative scrutiny in early 2008.
