Introduction

The author's interest in the Commission's powers of removal arises from acting for a majority of the School Fee Planning Charities from 1993 onwards. It appeared at the time that the Commission was not confident about its powers to remove these charities from the register. The author's subsequent involvement in the Charity Law Association's Working Party Review of the consultation document Maintenance of an Accurate Register of Charities, which was eventually published as RR6-Maintenance of an Accurate Register of Charities, reinforced the view that this subject had received little academic or professional attention. This is surprising because a decision by the Commission that an institution is not a charity is just as important as a decision that an institution is a charity. Much has been written about charitable status in the context of registration but there is a dearth of research on removal from the register or the removal of charitable status.

Basic propositions

There are five basic propositions.

First, the Commission's powers of removal are limited. It should rarely be the case that charities are removed from the register. If charities are removed too often then the public and the Government will lose confidence in the process.

It is the need to maintain confidence in charities which underpins Lord Simmonds dictum that ‘once a charity always a charity’.