New Odstock charity accepted for registration

(Immediate Release - 08 May 2008)

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator and registrar of charities in England and Wales, has accepted Odstock Charitable Trust (OCT) for registration as a charity with purposes directed to relieving sickness and protecting the health of patients at an NHS hospital. OCT is a separate organisation to Odstock Private Care Limited (OPCL), to which the Commission previously refused registration on the grounds that it did not meet the public benefit requirement as it did not demonstrate that people who could not afford the fees could benefit from its services.

OPCL does have a relationship with OCT in that it will look to gift aid profits over to the charity, but the two organisations will remain separate. The Commission is satisfied that OCT has been established for exclusively charitable purposes for the public benefit, and should be registered as such. However, the position with regard to OPCL remains unchanged.

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Notes to editors:

The Charity Commission is the independent regulator for charitable activity in England and Wales. For more information see our website at www.charitycommission.gov.uk.
The Commission’s original decision on OPCL is available here: http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/registration/pdfs/odstockdecision.pdf, and the press release announcing this decision in January 2008 is available here: http://nds.coi.gov.uk/environment/fullDetail.asp?ReleaseID=337911&NewsAreaID=2&NavigatedFromDepartment=True

For more information please call Chris Kiggell on 020 7674 2332.

PR16/08