A comparison of the law on house-to-house collections with street collections

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Notes
Table - comparing the law on house-to-house collections with street collections
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Notes

See the top of the Law on house-to-house collections page for information on geographical coverage and accuracy.

Our scope: The focus of CharityBags' efforts is on house-to-house collections, rather than street collections. However, the two types are closely related. Therefore we've included some information on street collections as well.

We have not researched the law on street collections in detail - so do not treat our comparison below as authoritative.

The law on house-to-house collections differs from that of street collections in various ways. We've compiled the table below to highlight the differences.

	Regulation of House-to-house collections	Regulation of street collections
Date of Act	1939	1916
Scope of Act	Only house-to-house collections	Street collections and various other matters
Date of national Regulations	1947 and 1963	1974 and 1979
Date of local Regulations	Not applicable	Varies from authority to authority
Mandatory or not?	Mandatory (ie compulsory) - licensing authorities cannot opt out	Discretionary (ie optional) - authorities choose whether to introduce Regulations or not
Geographical Coverage of Regulations	National (England, Wales and Scotland)	Local - if a licensing authority introduces Regulations, they only apply to its geographical area
Variation	None - the rules are identical for all licensing authorities	Variable - each authority produces its own Regulations, with its own wording.
Items covered	Collection of money or collection of goods	Collection of money or sale of goods. In practice it is usually money
Form of authorisation	Licence from licensing authority or national Exemption Order from the Office of the Third Sector or Exemption by police	Permit from licensing authority
Refusal of licence: Right of appeal?	Yes	No

The law on house-to-house collections

The law on street collections

Charity law reforms

Acts and Regulations

Variations across the UK

A comparison of the law on house-to-house collections with street collections

Notes

Related pages