19 - A legal definition of ‘charity’

Summary

Introduction

An agenda for change

In the previous chapter we observed that the nineteenth century had handed on a definition of charity based on the preamble to the Statute of Charitable Uses 1601 but encrusted with a luxuriant growth of case law. Despite several official and unofficial proposals during the twentieth century to reform and/or clarify the definition the legislature had until recently taken no major steps in this direction (see Colwyn Commission (Cmd 615, 1920) Pt III, s III, s xiv Nathan Report (Cmd 8710, 1952) paras 123–140; Report of the Radcliffe Commission on the Taxation of Profits and Income (Cmd 9474, 1955) ch 7; 10th Report of the House of Commons Expenditure Committee (HC Paper no 495 (1974–75) vol 1, paras 24–34; Goodman Committee Report Charity Law and Voluntary Organisations (1976) para 23 and App I). There had been an obvious opportunity for reform at the time of the Charities Act 1960 but this statute, while repealing the 1601 preamble, left the definition itself untouched (s 38(1)(4); see Marshall (1961) 24 MLR 444). The matter appeared to have been settled by the Conservative government in its 1989 review of the regulatory framework provided by charity law (Charities: A Framework For the Future (Cm 694, 1989). The opinion expressed in the Review was that any reformulation or attempt to give the definition statutory effect was undesirable: ‘There would appear to be few advantages in attempting a wholesale redefinition of charitable status – and many real dangers in doing so’ (para 2.17).