Charities Act 1993 : Chapter 10.

  • Great Britain.
Date:
[1993]
    Part III (5) The Commissioners may pay to any person the necessary expenses of his attendance to give evidence or produce documents for the purpose of an inquiry under this section, and a person shall not be required in obedience to a direction under paragraph (c) of subsection (3) above to go more than ten miles from his place of residence unless those expenses are paid or tendered to him. (6) Where an inquiry has been held under this section, the Commissioners may either— (a) cause the report of the person conducting the inquiry, or such other statement of the results of the inquiry as they think fit, to be printed and published, or (b) publish any such report or statement in some other way which is calculated in their opinion to bring it to the attention of persons who may wish to make representations to them about the action to be taken. (7) The council of a county or district, the Common Council of the City of London and the council of a London borough may contribute to the expenses of the Commissioners in connection with inquiries under this section into local charities in the council’s area. Power to call for 9.—(1) The Commissioners may by order— documents and : ; : , & ogee IESE S RAPE (a) require any person to furnish them with any information in his possession which relates to any charity and is relevant to the discharge of their functions or of the functions of the official custodian; (b) require any person who has in his custody or under his control any document which relates to any charity and is relevant to the discharge of their functions or of the functions of the official custodian— (i) to furnish them with a copy of or extract from the document, or (ii) (unless the document forms part of the records or other documents of a court or of a public or local authority) to transmit the document itself to them for their inspection. (2) Any officer of the Commissioners, if so authorised by them, shall be entitled without payment to inspect and take copies of or extracts from the records or other documents of any court, or of any public registry or office of records, for any purpose connected with the discharge of the functions of the Commissioners or of the official custodian. (3) The Commissioners shall be entitled without payment to keep any copy or extract furnished to them under subsection (1) above; and where a document transmitted to them under that subsection for their inspection relates only to one or more charities and is not held by any person entitled as trustee or otherwise to the custody of it, the Commissioners may keep it or may deliver it to the charity trustees or to any other person who may be so entitled. (4) No person properly having the custody of documents relating only to an exempt charity shall be required under subsection (1) above to transmit to the Commissioners any of those documents, or to furnish any copy of or extract from any of them.
    (5) The rights conferred by subsection (2) above shall, in relation to information recorded otherwise than in legible form, include the right to require the information to be made available in legible form for inspection or for a copy or extract to be made of or from it. 10.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) below and to any express restriction imposed by or under any other enactment, a body or person to whom this section applies may disclose to the Charity Commissioners any information received by that body or person under or for the purposes of any enactment, where the disclosure is made by the body or person for the purpose of enabling or assisting the Commissioners to discharge any of their functions. (2) Subsection (1) above shall not have effect in relation to the Commissioners of Customs and Excise‘or the Commissioners of Inland Revenue; but either of those bodies of Commissioners (“the relevant body”) may disclose to the Charity Commissioners the following information— (a) the name and address of any institution which has for any purpose been treated by the relevant body as established for charitable purposes; (b) information as to the purposes of an institution and the trusts under which it is established or regulated, where the disclosure is made by the relevant body in order to give or obtain assistance in determining whether the institution ought for any purpose to be treated as established for charitable purposes; and (c) information with respect to an institution which has for any purpose been treated as so established but which appears to the relevant body— (i) to be, or to have been, carrying on activities which are not charitable, or (ii) to be, or to have been, applying any of its funds for purposes which are not charitable. (3) In subsection (2) above, any reference to an institution shall, in relation to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, be construed as a reference to an institution in England and Wales. (4) Subject to subsection (5) below, the Charity Commissioners may disclose to a body or person to whom this section applies any information received by them under or for the purposes of any enactment, where the disclosure is made by the Commissioners— (a) for any purpose connected with the discharge of their functions, and (b) for the purpose of enabling or assisting that body or person to discharge any of its or his functions. (5) Where any information disclosed to the Charity Commissioners under subsection (1) or (2) above is so disclosed subject to any express restriction on the disclosure of the information by the Commissioners, the Commissioners’ power of disclosure under subsection (4) above shall, in relation to the information, be exercisable by them subject to any such restriction. Part III Disclosure of information to and by Commissioners.
    Part III 1978 c. 30. Supply of false or misleading information to Commissioners, etc. Data protection. 1984 c. 35. (6) This section applies to the following bodies and persons— (a) any government department (including a Northern Ireland department); (b) any local authority; (c) any constable; and (d) any other body or person discharging functions of a public nature (including a body or person discharging regulatory functions in relation to any description of activities). (7) In subsection (6)(d) above the reference to any such body or person as is there mentioned shall, in relation to a disclosure by the Charity Commissioners under subsection (4) above, be construed as including a reference to any such body or person in a country or territory outside the United Kingdom. (8) Nothing in this section shall be construed as affecting any power of disclosure exercisable apart from this section. (9) In this section “enactment” includes an enactment comprised in subordinate legislation (within the meaning of the Interpretation Act 1978). 11.—(1) Any person who knowingly or recklessly provides the Commissioners with information which is false or misleading in a material particular shall be guilty of an offence if the information— (a) is provided in purported compliance with a requirement imposed by or under this Act; or (b) is provided otherwise than as mentioned in paragraph (a) above but in circumstances in which the person providing the information intends, or could reasonably be expected to know, that it would be used by the Commissioners for the purpose of discharging their functions under this Act. (2) Any person who wilfully alters, suppresses, conceals or destroys any document which he is or is liable to be required, by or under this Act, to produce to the Commissioners shall be guilty of an offence. (3) Any person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable— (a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum; (b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine, or both. (4) In this section references to the Commissioners include references to any person conducting an inquiry under section 8 above. 12. An order under section 30 of the Data Protection Act 1984 (exemption from subject access provisions of data held for the purpose of discharging designated functions in connection with the regulation of financial services etc.) may designate for the purposes of that section, as if they were functions conferred by or under such an enactment as is there mentioned, any functions of the Commissioners appearing to the Secretary of State to be—
    (a) connected with the protection of charities against misconduct or mismanagement (whether by trustees or other persons) in their administration; or (b) connected with the protection of the property of charities from loss or misapplication or with the recovery of such property. Part IV APPLICATION OF PROPERTY Cy-PRES AND ASSISTANCE AND SUPERVISION OF CHARITIES BY COURT AND COMMISSIONERS Extended powers of court and variation of charters 13.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, the circumstances in which the original purposes of a charitable gift can be altered to allow the property given or part of it to be applied cy-pres shall be as follows— (a) where the original purposes, in whole or in part— (i) have been as far as may be fulfilled; or (ii) cannot be carried out, or not according to the directions given and to the spirit of the gift; or (b) where the original purposes provide a use for part only of the property available by virtue of the gift; or (c) where the property available by virtue of the gift and other property applicable for similar purposes can be more effectively used in conjunction, and to that end can suitably, regard being had to the spirit of the gift, be made applicable to common purposes; or (d) where the original purposes were laid down by reference to an area which then was but has since ceased to be a unit for some other purpose, or by reference to a class of persons or to an area which has for any reason since ceased to be suitable, regard being had to the spirit of the gift, or to be practical in administering the gift; or (e) where the original purposes, in whole or in part, have, since they were laid down, — (i) been adequately provided for by other means; or (ii) ceased, as being useless or harmful to the community or for other reasons, to be in law charitable; or (iii) ceased in any other way to provide a suitable and effective method of using the property available by virtue of the gift, regard being had to the spirit of the gift. (2) Subsection (1) above shall not affect the conditions which must be satisfied in order that property given for charitable purposes may be applied cy-pres except in so far as those conditions require a failure of the original purposes. (3) References in the foregoing subsections to the original purposes of a gift shall be construed, where the application of the property given has been altered or regulated by a scheme or otherwise, as referring to the purposes for which the property is for the time being applicable. Part III Occasions for applying property cy-pres.
    ParT IV Application cy- pres of gifts of donors unknown or disclaiming. (4) Without prejudice to the power to make schemes in circumstances falling within subsection (1) above, the court may by scheme made under the court’s jurisdiction with respect to charities, in any case where the purposes for which the property is held are laid down by reference to any such area as is mentioned in the first column in Schedule 3 to this Act, provide for enlarging the area to any such area as is mentioned in the second column in the same entry in that Schedule. (5) It is hereby declared that a trust for charitable purposes places a trustee under a duty, where the case permits and requires the property or some part of it to be applied cy-pres, to secure its effective use for charity by taking steps to enable it to be so applied. 14.—(1) Property given for specific charitable purposes which fail shall be applicable cy-pres as if given for charitable purposes generally, where it belongs— (a) to a donor who after— (i) the prescribed advertisements and inquiries have been published and made, and (ii) the prescribed period beginning with the publication of those advertisements has expired, cannot be identified or cannot be found; or (b) to a donor who has executed a disclaimer in the prescribed form of his right to have the property returned. (2) Where the prescribed advertisements and inquiries have been published and made by or on behalf of trustees with respect to any such property, the trustees shall not be liable to any person in respect of the property if no claim by him to be interested in it is received by them before the expiry of the period mentioned in subsection (1)(a)(ii) above. (3) For the purposes of this section property shall be conclusively presumed (without any advertisement or inquiry) to belong to donors who cannot be identified, in so far as it consists— (a) of the proceeds of cash collections made by means of collecting boxes or by other means not adapted for distinguishing one gift from another; or (b) of the proceeds of any lottery, competition, entertainment, sale or similar money-raising activity, after allowing for property given to provide prizes or articles for sale or otherwise to enable the activity to be undertaken. (4) The court may by order direct that property not falling within subsection (3) above shall for the purposes of this section be treated (without any advertisement or inquiry) as belonging to donors who cannot be identified where it appears to the court either— (a) that it would be unreasonable, having regard to the amounts likely to be returned to the donors, to incur expense with a view to returning the property; or (b) that it would be unreasonable, having regard to the nature, circumstances and amounts of the gifts, and to the lapse of time since the gifts were made, for the donors to expect the property to be returned.