Freeing charities to campaign fully
25th May 2007, 1:27 pm
The Advisory Group on Campaigning and the Voluntary Sector, chaired by Helena Kennedy QC, has produced its report. As “the voluntary sector has become the natural home” of much campaigning activity and civic engagement, tackling “the minefield of confusion, obstruction and outdated interpretations of the law” is important to the health of democracy. It urges changes in the Charity Commission’s approach to campaigning by charities as well as amendments to the law.
The advisory group comprised 25 organisations including Greenpeace, Oxfam, RSPCA, NCVO and Acevo. The report is in Word format, 301kb, on Bates, Wells and Braithwaite web site at http://www.bateswells.co.uk/Files/News/CampaigningReport.doc.
Coverage in the sector press includes a full page in Society Guardian, available at http://society.guardian.co.uk/voluntary/story/0,,2085490,00.html. From their summary of the changes needed:
Changes to the legal framework that would clarify the rights of UK charities to campaign; A less rigid interpretation by the Charity Commission of what constitutes “political campaigning”; An end to the third sector’s restricted access to broadcast media by removing the provision in the Communications Act 2003 that bans voluntary organisations from running “political” advertising campaigns.
Charity Finance news alert includes some sector reaction, at http://www.charityfinance.co.uk/charitynewsalert/30extra/index.asp.