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| GOVERNMENT
PLANS FOR PUBLIC COLLECTIONS UNDER FIRE |
02/12/03 |
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The
Institute of Fundraising has attacked government plans to regulate public
collections as "unworkable" and insist they would only increase
administration.
In its official response to the Home Office's proposals, the umbrella group
says the idea to produce a unified scheme is "impossible" because
of the "diverse nature of existing regulators" and "no two
organisations have identical objects in conducting a public collection".
Instead, the Institute feels there should be a new, centrally-funded, licensing
authority with regional branches, responsible in areas such as assessing
elegibility of groups wishing to collect, and operating a national database
of collection dates and locations.
It states: "We would recommend this was established with reference
to local authorities, all other existing regulators, national and regional
voluntary organisations.
"The model developed for face-to-face fundraising by the Public Fundraising
Regulatory Association (PFRA) could prove effective as a template for all
forms of public collection."
The Institute does not believe there is any realistic plan to develop the
current rules relating to local councils taking responsibility for licences,
nor for the Charity Commission to become more involved.
"Even with significantly increased levels of government support, it
is not reasonable to expect that either the Charity Commission or local
authorities will undertake any degree of expansion of their regulatory role."
However it does say that the annual reports of charities submitted to the
Commission should have an important role to play in the future set-up.
"The most effective means of presenting the costs of public collections
must lie in the annual accounts. All charities are required to comply with
SORP and this model of reporting should apply to all organisations conducting
public collections."
Although many of its sentiments were backed by the CFDG, the finance umbrella
group felt the Charity Commission should have a greater role to play.
Its policy and campaigns manager Francis Ingham says: "The plan for
a 'Lead Local Authority' system is simply unworkable. It would be inconsistent
and cost both charities and local authorities substantial amounts of time
and money.
"A far better option is to let the Charity Commission decide whether
individual charities should be allowed to undertake collections: that's
the course we'll be urging on the government."
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