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Variations across
the UK

Headings on this page :

      

Introduction

Variation - The law, government institutions and other organisations vary somewhat according to where you are in the UK :

• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• the Channel Islands
• the Isle of Man.

Variation and the 1939 Act - The focus of CharityBags is charitable house-to-house collections. These are controlled by the House-to-House Collections Act 1939 :

• The 1939 Act originally applied to England, Wales and Scotland.
  Now it only applies to England.
  (We understand that control of collections in Wales and Scotland has been devolved - in other words it's now dealt with by the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament.)
• The Act has never applied to Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man

Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man - We've not attempted to cover the situation in these areas.

Wales and Scotland - We've not attempted to cover the situation in these areas either.

England

We've designed the site to cover the situation in England (excluding Greater London). This means it applies (without provisos) to around 70% of the UK population.

If you live in Greater London, see the section on London below for the slight differences which apply in your area.

Organisations

• Some of the organisations we refer to, only cover England - such as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)
• Some organisations cover England and Wales - such as the Charity Commission for England and Wales
• Some organisations cover Britain (excluding Northern Ireland)
• Some organisations cover all the UK

Where an organisation doesn't cover all the UK, there are usually similar, sister bodies which operate in the remaining areas, carrying out similar functions.

For example the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is the Scottish equivalent of the Charity Commission for England and Wales.

Variations across England

See the Government page for more details on central and local government.

The variations across England are minor, mainly affecting the split of responsibilities within local government.  CharityBags is mainly concerned with three functions :

• licensing
• trading standards
• the police

To explain the differences, we've divided England into three types of area :

1. Shire counties (= two tiers of local government)
2. Unitary authorities (= one tier of local government)
3. Greater London

With each of these areas, we explain below the current arrangements regarding licensing, trading standards and the police.

1. Shire counties

Examples : Devon, Durham, Essex, Kent, North Yorkshire, Shropshire

In these areas there are two main tiers (levels) of local government :

• county (= the upper tier)
• district/borough (= the lower tier)

Typically there are five or so districts/boroughs in each county.

Licensing department:  Normally part of the district/borough council.

Trading standards department:  Normally part of the county council.

Police:  Usually consists of a county-wide police service eg Kent Constabulary.
In a few cases the police service covers two (or even three) counties - eg Devon and Cornwall Police.

(Note - Parish and town councils: These form a third tier of local government - the lowest tier. However, these councils have no powers in respect of charitable collections.)

2. Unitary councils

These consist of :

• metropolitan district councils (MDCs) within the former metropolitan counties (conurbations) of Merseyside, Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Midlands etc
• recent creations such as Milton Keynes Council.

In these areas there is only one tier of local government - the district/borough councils.

The licensing department and trading standards department are both part of the same council.

Police:  Usually consists of a county-wide police service eg Greater Manchester Police.

3. Greater London

There are two tiers of government :

• Greater London Authority (GLA) - This runs a few strategic London-wide services, especially transport - eg the London Underground railway.
• London Boroughs - These run most local government services. There are 30 or so boroughs in total.  Examples:  Barnet, Camden, Croydon, Islington.

Licensing:

• Most licensing is dealt with by the London boroughs.
• Licensing of charitable house-to-house collections and street collections - dealt with by the police.

Trading standards:  Responsibility of London boroughs

Police:

• The Metropolitan Police - "the Met" (answerable to the Home Office)
• The City of London Police (less than 5% of Greater London)

4. Who licenses house-to-house charitable collections?

Greater London:  London is unique - the police are the licensing authority.

The rest of England:  Originally the police were responsible for licensing collections.  However, since 1974 the local district councils have been the licensing authorities for charitable collections.

See the House to House Collections Act 1939 (as amended) for details of this.

See also the 'Government - local' section of the Useful links page

 

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