Supporting Good Work - Continued

Paul’s powerful reflection on charity (or love) in 1Corinthians 13 is both challenging and inspirational, but it does not offer a definition of what is a "charity"; nor, currently, does the Scottish legal system. While the Inland Revenue determines eligibility for charity tax benefits, there is no body regulating Scotland's 27,000 charities, like the English Church Commission. For some time, there has been demand for such a body, to bring greater clarity to those who work for charities and greater security for those invited to give to charities. The McFadden Commission (on which there was church representation through Janette Wilson, Solicitor to the Church of Scotland) has recently reported with a central recommendation of establishing such a body – "CharityScotland" – and the Scottish Executive are consulting about that and other recommendations, with a closing date of 30 September.

The report recommends that a Scottish Charity should be an organisation (a) whose overriding purpose is for public benefit (b) which is non-profit distributing (c) which is independent and (d) which is non-party political. Thus, it suggests, a charity could have the purpose of relieving need, or enhancing the lives of people in the community, or promoting animal welfare, or enhancing the environment. The definition would also include mutual self-help organisations whose membership is open on "objective public benefit criteria", and whose structures "reflect the public benefit culture".

The report stresses the need for charities to be independent, which might be at risk when they are dependent on state funding; it is therefore seen as important that those running charities should "use their discretion solely in the best interests of the charity". The Commission go on to affirm the importance of charities contributing to public debate on issues relevant to their work, but are clear that charities "should not undertake party political work".

The central recommendation is for the establishment of CharityScotland, with the "dual role of protecting the public interest and providing an effective support and regulatory system for charities". Its functions will be:

• determination of charitable status;
• maintenance of the Charity register;
• providing public accountability of charities;
• monitoring of charities;
• provision of a support service for charities;
• supervision of charity reorganisations;
• protection of the public.

The system of accountability, which will include public access to charity accounts, will allow for an abridged form of accounts for smaller, volunteer-run charities. The definition of "public charitable collection" will be extended to include "tabard collectors" (collecting promises of money rather than cash) and the collection of goods or donations; it is also expected that CharityScotland will co-ordinate major public fundraising (including a national calendar and liaison with local authorities re dates). It will monitor the percentage of income spent on charitable purposes and investigate excessive spending on fund-raising. It is further recommended that paid fundraisers should be identified as such, and that charitable merchandise should be labelled with the proportion going to the named charity.

Although the report does not deal at any length with issues of state funding or of tax

benefits, it includes a strong recommendation that "Scottish charities should receive mandatory 80% relief from water and sewerage charges".