Update from the Charity Commission on public benefit guidance

The Charity Commission has published its updated public benefit guidance, removing the parts deemed flawed by the Upper Tribunal. 

The Commission has emphasised that most of the guidance still stands and that most charities are not directly affected by the sections withdrawn. “However,” it added, “all trustees are required to have regard to the Commission’s guidance and so need to be aware of these changes.”

The parts of the guidance that are affected by The Tribunal's decision are:

1. The whole of our guidance Public Benefit and Fee Charging.
2. On page 19 of our guidance The Advancement of Education for the Public Benefit, the cross-reference to Public Benefit and Fee Charging.
3. Sections F10 and F11 of our guidance Charities and Public Benefit.
4. In section H4 of Charities and Public Benefit, The 8th and 9th bullet points.
5. In sections C3 and F1 of Charities and Public Benefit, the second bullet point in principle 2 (b) (including the reference to section F10), and the reference to section F11 in principle 2 (c).
6. In section F3 on page 19 of Charities and Public Benefit, the reference to section F10 and the fourth bullet point in the second box.

All the public benefit guidance can be found here with the withdrawn sections clearly marked. These sections no longer form part of the Commission's statutory guidance to which trustees must have regard when carrying out any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.

Trustees can look at interim advice provided in a Question and Answer form on public benefit which is available on the website.

Charity trustees of educational charities which charge high fees, in consequence of their duty to administer the charity for the public benefit, are required to take into account the whole of the class of beneficiaries the charity is set up to provide for. Trustees have a duty to make provision for the poor, and that provision must be more than minimal or tokenistic and must be related to the charity's aims.

The Upper Tribunal decision does not change the duty of all charity trustees to report on their charity's public benefit and to declare in it that they have had regard to the Charity Commission's public benefit guidance.