Charity Tribunal Consultation

Currently, charities that wish to appeal against the Charity Commission's legal decisions only have the option of going to the High Court. This can be prohibitively expensive and complicated, particularly for small charities. To address this the Charities Act 2006 establishes a Charity Tribunal as a first level of appeal, which will be cheaper, more convenient and less formal than the High Court. The Draft Rules outlining the practice and procedure to be followed in proceedings before the Charity Tribunal have now been published for consultation.

The Tribunal's role will be to make judgements about the legality of of the Commission's actions in exercising its statutory powers to regulate charities. The Tribunal will have various powers that it can exercise if it finds that the Commission has acted unlawfully. For example, it may decide to quash a decision if it finds that the Commission has not followed the correct processes, and to replace it with its own decision.

The Tribunal will be able to quash the Commission's decisions and award costs in certain circumstances. It will not be able, however, to award compensation.

The Tribunal will not consider complaints about the Commission's general conduct and service, which will continue to be dealt with through the route of the existing complaints procedure.

For more information please see the downloadable consultation document and Draft Rules for the Charity Tribunal below.

If you would like to contribute any comments on the Draft Rules please email info@trusteenet.org.uk by Friday 19th October, writing clearly in the subject box that you are responding to the Consultation on the Draft Charity Tribunal Rules. CTN will use your comments to inform any response to the consultation that it may submit.