Charity Legal Update - March 2008

The change which attracted most interest at our last seminar was the introduction of the Charitable Incorporated Organisation, the new legal form for charities. The trustees and staff of many unincorporated charities have been giving a great deal of thought to whether they should wait for the new form or go ahead with incorporating as a company limited by guarantee. If you have been considering these issues, you may be interested to know that there was a further development just before the Easter weekend. A letter from the Office of the Third Sector announcing the publication of the third commencement order under the Charities Act 2006 included the statement that:

Progress on the Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) has been held up somewhat, but we are expecting to publish a consultation package of the draft secondary legislation and Charity Commission model constitutions in May. The form itself may not be available until early 2009.

The changes introduced by the third commencement order include:

• the new Charity Tribunal
• changes to the rules on altering the way in which a charitable gift can be applied under the cy-pres doctrine
• steps to make it easier to pay trustees for providing services to a charity (other than acting as a trustee or being an employee of the charity)

For more information please contact Shivaji Shiva on 01392 687542 or shivaji.shiva@michelmores.com