A report by Kaye Wiggins in “Third Sector Online” on 2 March 2011,
states that religious charities operating in Northern Ireland might not
have to prove that they provide a public benefit in order to keep their
charitable status, according to ministers.
The Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008 says that all charities must prove they operate for the public benefit.
But in Feburary, the Northern Ireland Executive – made up of 13
senior ministers – asked the Department for Social Development to draft
legislation that would reintroduce a presumption of public benefit for
religious organisations and possibly for charities that address poverty.
The executive’s request came in response to a DSD proposal to amend
the Northern Ireland act because of potential confusion over the
definition of public benefit.
Lawyers had claimed that the act was open
to challenge because it used elements of both English and Scottish law.
The executive’s response was to ask the department to redraft the
legislation so it said that religious charities would be presumed to be
providing a public benefit, without the need for this to be
demonstrated.
It also asked for this to be considered in the case of
charities dealing with poverty.
Alex Attwood, the minister for social development in Northern
Ireland, told a meeting of his department’s committee last month that he
did not agree with the executive’s decision because it was contrary to
the 2008 act.
He said, however, that he was bound as a member of the executive to
honour its decisions and would arrange for the new legislation to be
drafted.
The legislation will have to be introduced to the assembly before 7
March in order for it to be passed before the assembly is dissolved in
advance of the general election in May.
Roy McGivern, head of charity policy at the DSD, told Third Sector it
was still unclear whether this legislation, and the provision for the
English and Welsh public benefit test, would be introduced within this
time.
Last month, the Charity Commission Northern Ireland was given
jurisdiction over the 7,000 organisations that operate in Northern
Ireland and are registered with HMRC as charities.
It can address complaints about these charities and open inquiries
into allegations of misconduct, but it cannot assess their public
benefit or start to create a register of charities until the legislation
is passed.