§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether he will introduce legislation to prevent business and political organisations obtaining advantages through connections with parallel organisations purporting to be religious cults;
(2) whether he will introduce amending legislation to make charities accountable to Parliament and to ensure that only bona fide charities are registered as such.
§ Dr. SummerskillBefore reaching a decision on the need for further legislation on charities we would prefer to await the report of the committee set up by the National Council of Social Service, which we will consider in the light of the recommendations already made in the Tenth Report from the Expenditure Committee.
§ Mr.Roseasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will take action, by legislation or otherwise, to prevent the collection of moneys for charities which are linked with wholly-owned subsidiary limited companies where such companies have purely commercial aims.
§ Dr. SummerskillCharitable collections are controlled by the provisions of the House to House Collections Act 1939 and by street collection regulations in force in most areas of the country; and the misappropriation of the proceeds of such collections is already an offence. It is not clear to us that further action is required.
§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what control he now has over the accordance of charitable status to organisations, purporting to be religious, whose members have been convicted of breaking the law with regard to collections or the keeping of proper accounts.
§ Dr. SummerskillNone. Charitable status is a matter for the courts. Registration as a charity, which is conclusive evidence of charitable status, is a matter for the Charity Commissioners, and their decisions depend solely on whether the organisation has purposes which are charitable in law.
137W
§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will take action to prevent the use of so-called charitable organisations to assist distribution of articles by manufacturing and other profit-making companies.
§ Dr. SummerskillNo. Some charities sell commercially produced goods as part of their normal fund-raising activities.