23 March 2011

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities for England and Wales, has today published a report on the findings of its public benefit assessments into arts and recreation and leisure charities.

The 'Emerging Findings' report sets out the Commission's conclusions and recommendations following its second round of assessments into the public benefit of a selection of charities. The report is intended to help charities with their public benefit reporting.

Overall, the assessments illustrated the variety of ways in which recreation and leisure charities, and charities for the advancement of the arts, could demonstrate their public benefit.

Additionally, the Commission found that:

• there is considerable scope for fee-charging charities to be innovative in providing opportunities to benefit for people who are unable to afford the fees. Whilst providing free or subsidised access is one way of doing this, the charities assessed provided many other examples of significant opportunities to benefit.
• some arts charities could more accurately express their aims, as only benefits related to a charity's aims can be used as a way of demonstrating that these aims are for the public benefit; and
• membership charities need to be able to demonstrate that the membership is sufficiently open. This may be affected by the cost of membership fees, selection by ability or the required nomination by an existing member.

Rosie Chapman, Executive Director, Policy and Effectiveness at the Charity Commission said:

"We are encouraged to find that the charities we assessed were able to demonstrate a rich diversity of ways in which they meet the public benefit requirement, beyond providing subsidised access. We hope that publishing the findings of these assessments will further raise awareness and understanding of ways in which charities can meet the public benefit principles."

The report marks the end of the Commission's formal programme of public benefit assessments, however public benefit issues will continue to be considered as a routine part of the Commission's work and as an essential element of all registration cases.

A number of the findings in the report relate to the Commission's ongoing public consultation on the advancement of amateur sport as a charitable aim. The Commission is encouraging people to respond to the consultation, which looks at what can be done by charities to advance that aim for the public benefit.

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PR 15/11  

Notes to Editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. See www.charitycommission.gov.uk for further information or call our contact centre on 0845 300 0218.

2. Prior to the Charities Act 2006, charities established to advance education or religion or to relieve poverty were presumed to have aims which are for the public benefit, and they were not required to demonstrate this further, unless there was evidence to the contrary. The Charities Act 2006 removed this presumption and all charities now have to demonstrate that their aims are for the public benefit.

3.  The Charity Commission published its general guidance on public benefit for charities in January 2008, followed by four sets of supplementary guidance in December 2008. The Commission has also published a selection of fictitious example trustee reports, which aim to demonstrate how charities can effectively report on their public benefit. All guidance and examples are on the Charity Commission website - www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Charity_requirements_guidance/Charity_essentials/Public_benefit/default.aspx

4. The Charity Commission carried out public benefit assessments of charities operating in the religious, independent school and care homes sector in 2008-2009. Reports on these assessments can be found on the Commission's website alongside the published findings of this public benefit assessment work Emerging findings for charity trustees from the Commission's public benefit assessment work: 2008-09.

5. The consultation on the advancement of amateur sport as a charitable aim opens on 28 February 2011 and will close on 31 May 2011. Instructions for submitting responses can be found in the consultation document.