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Parliamentary Report

February–May 2009

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2009

Frank Cranmer
Frank Cranmer
Affiliation:
Fellow, St Chad's College, Durham Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University
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Extract

Lower financial thresholds for accounting and reporting requirements for small charities were brought into effect on 1 April under the terms of the Charities Acts 1992 and 1993 (Substitution of Sums) Order 2009. The changes include raising the threshold above which charities must prepare accruals accounts from £100,000 to £250,000; raising the threshold for external scrutiny of accounts from £10,000 to £25,000; and increasing the threshold for submission by registered charities of annual accounts and trustees' annual reports to the Charity Commission from £10,000 to £25,000. The Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers particularly welcomed the higher threshold for accruals accounts, the preparation of which requires a considerable degree of expertise, since the prospect of having to master the mysteries of accruals accounting has been a considerable discouragement to potential treasurers.

Type
Parliamentary Report
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 2009 , pp. 340 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 2009

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References

1 SI 2009/508, available at <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/pdf/uksi_20090508_en.pdf>, accessed 11 June 2009.

2 Available at <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/sr/sr2009/nisr_20090138_en_1>, accessed 3 April 2009.

3 Available at <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/northernireland/acts/acts2008/pdf/nia_20080012_en.pdf>, accessed 3 April 2009.

4 Available at <http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/acts/2009/a0609.pdf>, accessed 31 March 2009.

5 Which, to a canonist, looks remarkably like a formal secular recognition of at least some of the internal canonical norms of the various faith communities.

6 In addition, section 99 of the Act deals with a matter that simply would not come within the purview of charity law in the United Kingdom: the sale of Mass cards. For a recent analysis of the likely effects of cross-border regulation, see Breen, OB, Ford, P and Morgan, GG: ‘Cross-border issues in the regulation of charities: experiences from the UK and Ireland’, (2009) 11(3) International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law 5–37Google Scholar.

7 (2009) 11 Ecc LJ 208.

8 Available at <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/ukpga_20080029_en_1>, accessed 22 January 2009.

9 (2009) 11 Ecc LJ 208–209.

10 HC Deb (2008–09) 27 March 2009, c 620.

11 Ibid, c 628. He also quoted in support of that assertion the judgment of Rouleau J in O'Donohue v Canada [2003] CanLII 41404 (ON SC), available at <http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2003/2003canlii41404/2003canlii41404.html>, accessed 30 March 2009. The Ontario Court of Appeal concurred in a single paragraph: O'Donohue v Canada [2005] CanLII 6369 (ON CA).

12 HC Deb (2008–09) 27 March 2009, c 628.

13 Ibid, c 629.

14 Cm 7577, available at <http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/rights-responsibilities.pdf>, accessed 27 March 2009.

15 For a recent history of the debate, see Cranmer, F, ‘Human rights and the Christian tradition: a Quaker perspective’ in Doe, N and Sandberg, R (eds), Law and Religion: new horizons (Leuven, forthcoming 2009)Google Scholar.

16 Rights and Responsibilities, p 8.

17 Ibid, p 10.

18 See, for example, David Cameron's speech to the Centre for Policy Studies, ‘Balancing freedom and security – a modern British Bill of Rights’ (London, 26 June 2006), available at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/jun/26/conservatives.constitution>, accessed 27 March 2009.

19 Available at <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/uk-church-measures/2009/ukcm_20090001_en_1>, accessed 22 May 2009.

20 Available at <http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmbills/085/09085_iw/09085_iw_en_1.htm>, accessed 5 June 2009.

21 Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley Parochial Church Council v Wallbank [2004] 1 AC 546, HL.

22 See Catholic Care (Diocese Of Leeds) v Charity Commission for England and Wales [2009] Charity Tribunal CA/2008/0003, noted in this issue at pp 369–370.

23 ‘Faith, Homophobia, Transphobia, & Human Rights Conference 2009 media release’, 20 May 2009, available at <http://www.lgcm.org.uk/fhthrconference2009/FAITH_EXEMPTIONS.pdf>, accessed 4 June 2009. When I rang the Ministry of Justice to request a copy of the Minister's speech, the Press Office told me that it was not being made available.

24 See R (on the application of Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions & Ors [2009] EWCA Civ 92 (19 February 2009), available at <http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2009/92.html>, accessed 20 February 2009. At the time of writing, Ms Purdy's appeal was in progress in the House of Lords.

25 The consultation document is available at <http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/MembersBills/pdfs/EndOfLifeChoicesConsultation.pdf>, accessed 27 March 2009.

26 Unlike at Westminster, where an individual MP or peer can introduce a private Member's bill merely by giving notice, at Holyrood, in order to introduce what the Scots term a ‘Member's bill’, an MSP must first produce a proposal for consultation and then gather the support of at least 18 other MSPs, drawn from at least half the parties or groups represented on the Parliamentary Bureau.

27 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, Schedule 16, para 14.

28 HL Deb (2008–09) 18 May 2009, c 1220.

29 Available at <http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/sacode/downloads/RevisedSchoolAdmissionsCode041208.pdf>, accessed 11 June 2009.

30 Available at <http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/sacode/downloads/RevisedSchoolAdmissionAppealsCode041208.pdf>, accessed 11 June 2009.

31 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, s 79.

32 See, for example, Coulter, Carol, ‘Crime of blasphemous libel proposed for Defamation Bill’, The Irish Times, 29 April 2009Google Scholar, <http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0429/1224245599892.html>, accessed 11 June 2009.

33 [1999] 4 IR 484, [2000] 1 ILRM 426, available at <http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ie/cases/IESC/1999/5.html&query=Independent+Newspapers+&method=all>, accessed 18 May 2009. See especially Barrington J at paras 37 and 38.

34 Joint Committee on the Constitution, First Report: Article 40.6.1.i – Freedom of Expression (Dublin, 2008), para 2.106.

35 Ibid, para 5.22.

36 Defamation Bill 2006 Committee Amendments 28 April 2009, Amendment 40.

37 See ‘OSCE media freedom representative welcomes Irish draft law decriminalizing libel, asks to drop “blasphemous libel”‘, OSCE Press Release, 19 May 2009, available at <http://www.osce.org/item/37737.html>, accessed 11 June 2009. The Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe Final Act (Helsinki, 1975) is available at <http://www.osce.org/documents/mcs/1975/08/4044_en.pdf>, accessed 23 May 2009.

38 See for example, Catherine Pepinster's interview with Gordon Brown, ‘Our common cause’, The Tablet, 28 March 2009, <http://www.thetablet.co.uk/article/12733>, accessed 11 June 2009.