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Who regulates house-to-house collections?

Headings on this page :

Related pages
Introduction - a messy problem
- Who or what are 'regulators'?
- 'Jurisdiction' - in other words: Who does what? Who do you contact?
  Problems with the present system - too many regulators, overlaps, no-one in charge . . .

Licensing departments - of local councils
Police
TSDs - Trading standards departments - of local councils
OTS - The Office of the Third Sector - a central government department
OFT - The Office of Fair Trading - a central government department
Charity Commission for England and Wales - a central government body
ASA - The Advertising Standards Authority - a self-regulating trade body
Other agencies - eg Companies House, HMRC, the Environment Agency
- Organisations which aren't regulators

Regulators - Related pages and Useful links

Map of the UK (England and Wales in dark red)

Which parts of the UK are covered?

Most of the information on this page relates to England only. See the Variations across the UK page for details of the arrangements elsewhere.
In Greater London the arrangements are different in respect of (a) the licensing departments of local councils, and (b) the police. We give details of this below.

Government

Please see the Government page for details of central and local government generally.

Law

Please see the collection law page for details of the law relating to house-to-house collections - especially the House to House Collections Act 1939 and Regulations.

Changes in the law (expected 2010-11)

Please see the page on Charity law reforms for the planned changes relating to charitable collections, resulting from the Charities Act 2006.

Introduction - a messy problem

Who or what are 'regulators'?

We mean the organisations (usually government) which have powers :

to investigate collections which appear to be illegal (misleading or bogus), and
to take action - for example by prosecuting the culprits.

Regulators are sometimes referred to as "bodies", "authorities", "agencies" or "enforcers".

'Jurisdiction' - in other words: Who does what? Who do you contact?

'Traditional' crimes. With crimes like theft, robbery or violence - it's obvious - you contact the local police.

Suspicious 'charity' collections. Well, who do you contact? - it's a messy minefield. There's several types of organisation (regulator) which have powers to deal with these collections. But it's difficult to pick the correct organisation.

We've looked closely at the organisations which have a role in controlling house-to-house collections. We've identified :

three types of regulatory body at a local level, and
at least three national regulators.

We give details on each of these below.

This means that, wherever you live in England, there are up to six regulatory organisations dealing with collections.

This fragmentation of responsibility is confusing for people - it's unacceptable and it needs sorting out. It's a crucial factor in explaining why so many illegal house-to-house collections take place - which results in genuine charities losing millions of pounds each year - charities such as Help the Aged, NSPCC and the RSPCA.

Few people - even in government - seem to know (1) what the rules are, and (2) who deals with the problems. We've often found that agencies :

are unaware of other organisations which also have jurisdiction in these matters, and/or
have misconceptions about their status, remit, powers etc.

Sometimes we in CharityBags end up explaining to them 'who does what'.

'Mystery shopping'

If you're sceptical of what we're saying, you can test it out :

Published advice - Look at the regulators' websites, press releases, leaflets etc. You'll see conflicting advice: contact the police or trading standards or the Charity Commission or Consumer Direct or the ASA . . . etc.
Personal advice - Try contacting some of these organisations (by telephone or email) as a 'mystery shopper' - tell them you've just received a suspicious 'charity' collection leaflet or bag - and ask them: what should you do?

Ironically, they rarely mention the most-appropriate regulator - which is your local council licensing department (who can use the powers in the 1939 Act).

We've tested this out many times (contacting the organisations). For example, we rang the Charity Commission's 0845 helpline (anonymously) six times, and spoke to different people. We kept notes of what they said. None of them mentioned council licensing departments.

We spoke to police about a suspicious clothing collection - they referred us to trading standards. Trading standards said they didn't deal with it, referring us to the Charity Commission . . . who referred us to the police . . . and so it went on. All these people were courteous, and no doubt they were all trying to be helpful - but it was a mess.

Solutions

In the short term we can't simplify the arrangement of regulators. However, the problems could be reduced by :

providing more information about the regulators (websites, leaflets etc)
making sure the regulators themselves know what the rules are (and who does what)
ensuring there's more effective co-ordination between them
deciding on a single lead-agency (a bit like the 'home authority' principle used by trading standards) - perhaps licensing departments could take on this role?

For more on this, see the Problems and solutions page and Our aims page.

Below we give a summary of who the regulators are, and what they're responsible for. We hope this will be helpful.

1. Licensing departments of local councils

Note - Greater London: The part of this section which deals with charitable collections doesn't apply to Greater London - because the police are the licensing authority for collections in London - see next section (the police) for details.

There are around 300 local councils with licensing departments in England.

Many of these licensing departments are part of the council's environmental health department. Usually they have enforcement officers - who carry out inspections, investigations and (when appropriate) prosecutions.

The departments license a variety of activities - including taxis, alcohol, public entertainment, gambling and pet shops. See the Licensing regimes page for details.

Charitable collections

These licensing departments are also responsible for licensing most charitable collections :

street collections - eg collectors with tins, standing in shopping centres
house-to-house collections - of money or goods (eg clothes)

Our focus in CharityBags is on the second of these - house-to-house collections - and we concentrate on clothing collections.

The law controlling house-to-house collections is the House to House Collections Act 1939 - 'the 1939 Act'.

Charitable collections - enforcement

Licensed collections. The 1939 Act allows licensing departments to take action against licensed collectors if they act improperly. But such action is rare.

Unlicensed collections. Council licensing departments can take enforcement action against them (by prosecuting them, in a magistrates court). The 1939 Act specifies the penalties - currently fines up to level 3, or up to 6 months in prison.

There are thousands of unlicensed collections every year in the UK. However, prosecutions are very rare. Two examples are :

South Northamptonshire Council (SNC) prosecuted bogus collectors (called "Third World Recycling") in 2001. The police assisted on the ground, but the Council did the prosecution.
Cardiff Council prosecuted E&C Clothing Ltd in May 2009.

A few councils have told us that prosecutions under the 1939 Act should be done by the police (not the council). However, we've checked this carefully - and it's clear that the council should bring the prosecution.

Press releases. A number of councils have issued press releases warning people of the problem of bogus "charitable" house-to-house collections. Copies of some of these press releases are on our website, including Wolverhampton and West Lancashire. See the 'Examples of collections' heading on the drop-down menus.

Related pages :

See also the Office of the Third Sector (below) - eg national Exemption Orders (alternatives to licences).

2. The Police

There are around 40 police forces in England.

Sillitoe black-and-white pattern (police)

Dealing with collections - general powers

The police can investigate and prosecute certain criminal activities relating to house-to-house collections. For instance bogus collections can be considered "obtaining property by deception". We understand the powers in the Theft Act can be used for example. In these cases, the prosecutions are brought under general police powers and are not connected to the 1939 Act.

Greater London, the police and the 1939 Collections Act - a unique arrangement

In most of England, licensing of charitable collections is the responsibility of local council licensing departments (see the section above). However, in most of Greater London, the police are responsible. The arrangements are as follows :

In Greater London (except the City of London).
The police force is the Metropolitan Police (AKA the Met Police, the Met or MP). It's the largest police force in the UK. They're responsible for licensing collections.
In the 'City of London'.
This is less than 1% of Greater London - it's the financial area in Central London - including the Bank of England, the Guildhall, the Barbican (and the Lord Mayor). It's known as the 'square mile'. In this area the local council is the 'City of London Corporation' Under the 1939 Act, they're responsible for licensing collections. The City of London has its own police force - the City of London Police (CoLP).

These arrangements in Greater London have the advantage that there's no opportunity for confusion between the roles of (1) the licensing authority for charitable collections and (2) the police - because in this case they're both the same organisation.

3. Trading standards departments (TSDs) of local councils

There are around 100 trading standards departments in England - basically most county councils and all the unitary authorities.

They deal with consumer protection issues - relating to goods and services. For example they deal with faulty goods and weights and measures.

House-to-house collections

Trading standards departments can investigate certain aspects of house-to-house collections. In some cases they can prosecute. For example TSDs deal with misleading advertisements. The leaflets or bags delivered by house-to-house collectors are advertisements. So TSDs can investigate misleading aspects of these. These include any misleading references to charities or companies/businesses - such as bogus registration numbers, names or addresses.

See also the OFT and the Advertising Standards Authority (the ASA) - below.

4. The Office of the Third Sector (OTS) (a central government department)

Crown copyright HMSO

Website: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/

The Office of the Third Sector (OTS) was created in May 2006, incorporating the responsibilities of :

the Active Communities Directorate (ACD) in the Home Office, and
the Social Enterprise Unit in the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI).

"... the Office of the Third Sector leads work across government to support the environment for a thriving third sector (voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, charities, co-operatives and mutuals) ..." [OTS website]

The Office of the Third Sector :

is part of the Cabinet Office
is the department of central government responsible for charities
oversees the Charity Commission for England and Wales (an independent government agency) - see the section below on the Commission.
is responsible for the Government's reforms of charity law (including implementing the Charities Act 2006). These reforms will affect collections (around 2011 onwards). See our page on charity law reforms.

The OTS and national Exemption Orders for collections

Under the 1939 Act, the OTS is responsible for granting 'national Exemption Orders' to charities which want to carry out widespread house-to-house collections of money or goods (eg clothes). They're like a national collection licence. For details of national Exemption Orders see :

The National Exemption Orders page
The Law on house-to-house collections page

5. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) (a central government department)

Website: www.oft.gov.uk

The OFT deals with consumer matters - consumer law, trading practices, monopolies etc. It works closely with :

trading standards departments (TSDs) of local councils
the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The 'Consumer Direct' helpline is part of the OFT.

The OFT has helped produce guidance on how to avoid bogus house-to-house charitable clothing collections. `

The OFT has some strong powers. However, hardly any of them apply to clothing collections.

Also see the Consumer issues page.

6. The Charity Commission for England and Wales (a central government QUANGO)

The Charity Commission is an independent central government agency, answerable to the Office of the Third Sector (OTS). It registers charities and monitors them.

The Charity Commission's website has a searchable index of all the 180,000 or so registered charities - the "online Register". You can use this to check out any house-to-house collection if you think it might be bogus. Please note it's called the 'Charity' (not Charities) Commission.

Charities - dealing with any problems (eg fraud) :

Genuine charities - The Commission conducts inquiries into allegations of fraud etc and takes appropriate action.
Bogus charities - With organisations which pretend to be charities, the Commission may not have any powers to take action. `

The Commission are well aware of the problem of bogus 'charitable' house-to-house collections of clothing etc, and they've been investigating the issue. For example, see their 2003 report entitled 'Charity and door-to-door clothing collections'.

Scotland now has its own equivalent of the Charity Commission - called the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

7. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)

It's a 'self-regulating trade body' - it's not part of government. It deals with complaints about advertising in the UK, including clothing collection leaflets and bags.

For details, see the following pages :

The Advertising Standards Authority - including its adjudications on clothing collections
News release by the ASA on misleading 'charity' clothing collections

See also: trading standards departments, Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

8. Other agencies

The organisations described above are the main bodies dealing with collections. However, in some circumstances other regulators can also have a role.

These include :

Companies House - eg regarding bogus company names or registration numbers
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - eg VAT issues
The Government's Immigration Service - if the collectors appear to be illegal immigrants (eg the Gotham case)
The Ministry of Justice - responsible for the law in general, the courts etc
The Environment Agency (EA) - eg regarding the commercial collection and disposal of waste (including clothing).

Non-regulatory organisations

Organisations which are not part of government usually have no legal powers to take action against potential wrongdoers - for example Which? (formerly the Consumers' Association), which is an independent pressure group.

Also, organisations which only provide information and advice haven't got legal powers - for example Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABs).

Regulators :
Related pages and Useful links

Note: There are no red double-arrow symbols next to the external links below.

Charity Commission for England and Wales
www.charity-commission.gov.uk

Home Office [remit includes the police] - see the Government - central section

Licensing departments (local councils)
[responsible for licensing charitable collections under the 1939 Act (except in London)]

Office of Fair Trading (OFT) [part of DTI*]
www.oft.gov.uk

Police

Police - Metropolitan Police [answerable to Home Office and GLA]
[responsible for licensing charitable collections in London (excluding the City of London) under the 1939 Act]

Police - City of London Police
[responsible for licensing charitable collections in the City of London under the 1939 Act]

Trading standards departments (local councils) (TSDs) - see the Consumer issues section

Government A-Z above

Non-Government A-Z below

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)
www.asa.org.uk