Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Charity definition

What does Charity mean? In practice, a charity is an organisation established solely for charitable purposes to deliver public benefit, with assets held for those purposes and supervised by the courts and charity regulators. Common forms include a trust, unincorporated association or company limited by guarantee (including CIO/SCIO). Surpluses cannot be distributed to members; funds must be applied to the purposes. Political activity is permitted only as ancillary. Status determines regulatory duties and eligibility for charity tax reliefs. England and Wales: Charities Act 2011, s 1, defines a charity as an institution established for charitable purposes only and subject to High Court control;...

Charity trustees' statutory, fiduciary and third-party duties, liabilities and protections, including conflicts, wrongful trading and insurance (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Private Client expert

Practice notes

Charity trustees’ responsibilities—and the resulting potential Liabilities—fall into three groups: statutory duties, Fiduciary obligations owed to the Charity, and common law duties owed to third parties. The Charities Act 2022, which revises the Charities Act 2011 (CA 2011) following the Law Commission Report on various technical matters in charity law, has not yet come fully into force. The main unresolved point relates to ex gratia payments by charities, eg to a deserving yet disappointed beneficiary under a Will that, owing to a technicality, leaves a benefit to a charity. Any enquiry in this area calls for checking the most current legislative position.

Statutory duties

The CA 2011 sets out a range of specific duties for charity trustees...

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Francesca Quint

Radcliffe Chambers

Professional backgroundFrancesca Quint is best known as a specialist in charity law, an area in which she has been working for the whole of her career to date. Her interest in charity law dates from the time when she was reading law as an undergraduate at King's College, London.Professional expertiseCharity law naturally overlaps with distinct areas of law in which Francesca also practises which impinge on the activities of charities. These include education, housing, ecclesiastical law and aspects of public law. It also extends to those areas which affect people who wish to support charities, such as wills, trusts and tax, in which Francesca is often asked to advise regardless of any specific charity involvement.A good deal of Francesca's work is non-contentious but she often finds herself advising charities in trouble, whether financial, constitutional or regulatory, or acting for one side or another in...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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