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The law relating to charitable
house-to-house collections

Introduction

Geographical coverage - The law described on this page applies only to England (excluding London).

See the Variations across the UK page for information about the different arrangements in :

• London
• Britain (excluding England).

Accuracy - The text on this page is only a guide - it's not an authoritative statement of the law.  See Disclaimer page.

Our scope - The focus of CharityBags' efforts is on house-to-house collections, rather than street collections.  However, the two types of collection are closely related.  Therefore we've added two (brief) pages on street collections :

• The law on street collections
• Comparison of the law on house-to-house collections with street collections.

Reforms of charity law - See the Charity law reforms page for details of the Government's plans, including extracts from recent reports and details of the Charities Act 2006.  The changes are being implemented in stages from 2006 onwards.  The changes to the law on house-to-house (and street) collections were expected to come into force in 2010-2011.  However, it appears they've been deferred until further notice.

Summary of the law on charitable house-to-house collections

Is the collection 'non-charitable' or 'charitable' ?

• Non-charitable collections are not regulated
  - typically these collections are carried out by businesses, for private profit.
  A well-known example is "Steptoe and Son" on BBC TV.
• Charitable collections are regulated - in other words they need a licence or exemption.
  - The word 'charitable' here means that the collectors say (or imply) that the proceeds go to a charity or a similar good cause.  
  For more information on this, see the Definitions page.

In practice it can be difficult to decide whether some clothing collection leaflets/bags are 'charitable' or not.

For details, see the page:  A clothing collection:  Does it need a collection licence?

House to House Collections Act 1939
Title page (Crown copyright HMSO)

Law - The House to House Collections Act 1939
and Regulations (1947 and 1963)

The law regulating charitable collections is based on the House to House Collections Act 1939 and two related Regulations.

For details, see :

• the page on the 1939 Act and Regulations
• a copy of the 1939 Act

The law covers collections of goods (property eg unwanted clothes, bedding, books, CDs, jewellery, furniture) as well as money.

Authorisation needed - licences and exemptions

To be legal, charitable house-to-house collections must be authorised.  This means the collectors must have either :

1. a collection licence
   This is issued by the licensing department of the local council (a district/borough council).
   For details, see :
   • the page on applications for collection licences
   • the page on council registers of collection licences
      
     or . . .
2. an exemption
   There are two types :
   1. A 'national Exemption Order' granted to certain larger charities by the Cabinet Office (a central government department in Whitehall, London).
      This is for collections over a large area of England and Wales.
      For details, see the page on national Exemption Orders.
   2. A local exemption, granted by the local police - for a local collection to be completed within a short period - eg by a scout group.

Monitoring, Enforcement and prosecution

If a charitable collection doesn't have a licence or exemption, it's illegal - and the collectors can be prosecuted by the local council and fined.

For details, see the page on collection monitoring, enforcement and prosecution.

The regulators

Above, we've referred to :

• local council licensing departments
• the Cabinet Office.

However, some other regulatory organisations also have powers which can be used to deal with misleading collections (depending on the circumstances) :

• the police
• trading standards (TSDs)
• the Charity Commission for England and Wales
• the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
• the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

For more details, see the Regulators page.

Reforms

We outline below the reforms of charity law (including collections) currently being introduced (in stages) resulting from the Charities Act 2006.

For full details see the page on reforms of charity law.

Definitions - concerning the law on charitable house-to-house collections

With many areas of law (including collections) the general principles are straightforward.  However, when you look at them more closely there are complications and technicalities (the 'small print').  For example :

• exceptions to the general rules
• the exact definitions of words and phrases.

On the Definitions page we deal with some of these complications in relation to charitable collections, for instance regarding the definitions of :

• charitable purpose
• charity versus charitable
• house-to-house
• door-to-door
• unlicensed

Legislation - The House to House Collections Act 1939 and Regulations (1947 and 1963)

The rules controlling collections summarised above are contained in the law on charitable house-to-house collections.  This consists of the 1939 Act and Regulations below :

• House to House Collections Act 1939
  This Act was passed 60 years ago, in the year the 2nd World War began.
  We've put a copy of the 1939 Act on the website.
• The House to House Collections Regulations 1947 and 1963
  These give more detail on the procedures for controlling collections laid down in the 1939 Act.  See below for more on these.

Extracts from the Regulations: Some local authority licensing departments have produced helpful extracts from the Regulations.  They have printed them as leaflets, and (in some cases) added them to their websites.  Usually they will supply printed copies for free.

To see an example (produced by South Northamptonshire Council), click below :

     "Extracts from The House to House Collections Regulations 1947"

Related law

Charities Act 1992

Part III of this Act set out a proposed new regime for the licensing of collections covering both house-to-house and street collections.  It was intended to supersede the 1916 and 1939 Acts (which cover street and house-to-house collections respectively), merging the two into one (simpler) unified, modernised system.  Some of the wording is very similar to the 1939 Act.

However, Part III of the 1992 Act has never been brought into force, because concerns were raised about whether it would work in practice.

If you look at the Act on the OPSI / HMSO website (details below) there is no obvious indication that Part III has not been brought into force - which is rather misleading.  Indeed we know of one "authoritative" book on law that has got it wrong - it has the collection provisions in Part III of the 1992 Act listed as now in force, and the 1939 Act listed as superseded !

The full text of the 1992 Act can be seen on the Net (free on the Government's OPSI / HMSO website).  For details see the Acts and Regulations page.

Charity law reforms in progress - The Charities Act 2006

See the page on charity law reforms for details of :

• Several useful reports produced by central government, especially the Home Office.  One of the reports deals exclusively with charitable collections - it nicely summarises the present law and suggests improvements.
• The reforms currently being introduced (in stages) under the Charities Act 2006

Useful sources of information - law

See the Useful links page, except for the following :

Acts and Regulations

The Law page

The Acts and Regulations page

Charitable house-to-house collections :

• House to House Collections Act 1939
• The House to House Collections Regulations 1947 and 1963

The Law on street collections page