What is a charity?

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The Charities Act 2011 (CA 2011) introduced a new set of criteria for charities to comply with, which meant that they have a wider set of purposes which they can fit into but they have to satisfy a number of additional criteria and stringent monitoring to be registered and remain so.

Essentials of a charity

Not all institutions that adopt a charitable purpose will be registered with the Charity Commission. This is because registration is not a prerequisite of being a charity. CA 2011 defines a charity as an institution that is established for charitable purposes. In consequence any organisation wishing to be considered as a charity must be able to satisfy this definition.

In particular it must be an institution but CA 2011 does not offer a definition of this so earlier legislation has to be resorted to for help. The situation is confused by the legislation stating that some organisations are charitable if other legislation indicates so. This can then lead to a difficulty of external control that the practitioner needs to be aware of.

Charities do have the advantage that they

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