Charities/Charitable Trusts - Equity and Trusts University Law Module Notes - Including Case Examples

Equity & Trusts


Charitable Trusts


Charities are set up for a purpose and they are typically a trust.
The Charity Commission is the Regulator and Registrar of Charities under the
Charities Act 2011.
Requirements:
 s.1(1)(a) Charities Act 2011 – Exclusively Charitable
o The Trust needs to be for an Exclusively Charitable purpose.
 s.2(1)(a) Charities Act 2011 – Charitable Purpose
o The Trust needs to be for a charitable purpose which qualifies as
charitable under law.
 s.2(1)(b) Charities Act 2011 – Public Benefit
o There are two aspects to Public Benefit – Public aspect and Benefit
aspect.


Exclusively Charitable – s.1(1)(a) Charities Act 2011
The trust must be able to establish an exclusively charitable purpose. Private
benefit is not permitted.


Charitable Purpose - s.2(1)(a) Charities Act 2011
Original charitable purposes were rationalised in the case of Special
Commissioners of Income Tax v Pemsel [1891] A.C. 531, these include: Poverty,
Education and Religion.
s.3(1) Charities Act 2011 – This section of the Act lists 13 acknowledged
charitable purposes.
 Some of these include the purpose surrounding:
o Poverty
o Education
o Religion
o Health
o Environment
o Animal Welfare
o Human Rights
o Ect…

Case Examples of Charitable Purposes:
Poverty – Re Gwyon [1930] 1 CH 255
 In this case, money was left in order to provide children with short trousers
in Farnham.
 The purpose of the trust was found to not be for the prevention or relief of
poverty.