Charitable definition under the Charities Act (NI) 2008 Part 1

Under the 2008 Act a "Charity" is an institution which is established for charitable purposes only. But what constitutes a "charitable purpose"? For the answer to that question we must examine section 2 of the Act.

Under section 2 the purpose must fall within one of the descriptions listed in Section 2(2) AND be for the public benefit.

The descriptions listed in s2(2) are as follows:

(a)the prevention or relief of poverty;.

(b)the advancement of education;.

(c)the advancement of religion;.

(d)the advancement of health or the saving of lives;.

(e)the advancement of citizenship or community development;.

(f)the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science;.

(g)the advancement of amateur sport;.

(h)the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity;.

(i)the advancement of environmental protection or improvement;.

(j)the relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage;.

(k)the advancement of animal welfare;.

(l)any other purposes within subsection (4)

Subsection 4 goes on to include:

(a)any purposes not within paragraphs (a) to (k) of subsection (2) but recognised as charitable purposes under existing charity law or by virtue of section 1 of the Recreational Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 1958 (c. 16);.

(b)any purposes that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to, or within the spirit of, any purposes falling within any of those paragraphs or paragraph (a) above; and.

(c)any purposes that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to, or within the spirit of, any purposes which have been recognised under charity law as falling within paragraph (b) above or this paragraph..


In effect, the Act introduces for the first time a statutory definition of a charity. Any organistion contemplating the adoption of charitable status must satisfy one of the aforementioned descriptions. The organistion must only exist to advance or or more of these purposes.

Can Charity Trustees be Paid?

The short answer to this question is generally, no.

However, there are limited circumstances where a trustee can be paid by the charity for services provided to or on behalf of a trustee which go above and beyond the normal duties of that person in his or her trustee role.

A number of conditions must be met before any payment can be made:

-The charities governing documents must give an express power to remunerate the trustee.

-There must also be a written agreement between the charity and the trustee to be paid which should set out the minimum and maximum that the trustee can be paid. To avoid any conflict of interest the trustee should not sit partake in the decision made by the board to enter into the agreement.

-The payment must also be reasonable and must be in the best interests of the charity.

-The total number of trustees who are receiving payment must be in the minority.

-There is an onus on the board to adhere to the "duty of care" as laid out in the Trustee Act (NI) 2001 (2000 Trustee Act in England & Wales)

Trustees can of course recover reasonable out of pocket expenses.

Community Benefit Societies & The Asset Lock

In recent years Community Benefit Societies (BenComm's) in England & Wales and Northern Ireland have had the option of introducing an 'asset lock' within their legal framework which ensures, that upon dissolution or amalgamation, the assets will be retained permanently for the benefit of the community. This also prevents the possibility of the assets being redistributed to members upon a conversion from a Society to a Company.

Public Procurement Action Plan (Northern Ireland)

The Department of Finance & Personnel have recently released their response to the Assembly's Inquiry into public procurement in Northern Ireland. The Response outlines how the Department will address many of the reccommendation made by the Assembly Committee in it's report.