We have a round-up of the upcoming developments for charities:
The Charities Act 2022
The Charities Act 2022 became law at the end of February 2022. It seeks to implement most of the recommendations made by the Law Commission in its 2017 report “Technical Issues in Charity Law”. Implementation of the Act should save charities not only time but also expense. Click here to read more about the changes that we consider to be of the most practical use to our clients. A breakdown of key implementation dates can be found here.
Charity Commission Business Plan
The Charity Commission updated its current business plan at the end of last year and confirmed its key priorities for this year including:
To help charities support the country in its recovery from the pandemic;
To continue to deliver a step change in its robust approach to regulation;
To improve how it uses data; and
To create the right environment to enable its people to be more effective and help make the Commission a great place to work.
In order to achieve these priorities the Charity Commission has set out various deliverables including:
Designing and delivering the initial phase of a charity trustee portal, as the first step in building a more one-to-one relationship with charity trustees.
Completing the discovery phase for a digital-first registration system and exploring opportunities for further automation in other processes.
Redesigning more of its guidance and delivering a programme of charity trustee-facing campaigns on key areas of charity governance.
Delivering further improvements to the register of charities.
The developments will be welcome as they will make information more easily accessible and processes smoother.
Charity Governance Code
The Charity Code of Governance underwent a refresh in 2020 and significantly updated provisions around the Diversity and Integrity principles in the Code. The Steering Group responsible for the Charity Governance Code is expected to consult on a more wide-ranging overhaul of the Code in 2023. Watch this space for further updates when the consultation launches.
For more information, please contact Sharon Thandi.
