Charities Act 1960

Powers of local authorities and of charity trustees

10 Local authority's index of local charities

(1) The council of a county or of a borough may maintain an index of local charities or of any class of local charities in the council's area, and may publish information contained in the index, or summaries or extracts taken from it

(2) A council proposing to establish or maintaining under this section an index of local charities or of any class of local charities shall, on request, be supplied by the Commissioners free of charge with copies of such entries in the register of charities as are relevant to the index or with particulars of any changes in the entries of which copies have been supplied before ; and the Commissioners may arrange that they will without further request supply a council with particulars of any such changes.

(3) An index maintained under this section shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable times.

(4) A council may employ any voluntary organisation, and the council of a county may employ the council of any county district in the county, or the divisional executive (within the meaning of Part III of the First Schedule to the Education Act, 1944) for any part of the county, as their agent for the purposes of this section, on such terms and within such limits (if any) or in such cases as they may agree; and for this purpose " voluntary organisation " means any body of which the activities are carried on otherwise than for profit, not being a public or local authority.

(5) A joint board discharging any of a council's functions shall have the same powers under this section as the council as respects local charities in the council's area which are established for purposes similar or complementary to any services provided by the board.

(6) The provisions of this section may be adopted in any urban district by resolution of the council, and shall thereupon (subject to any further resolution of the council revoking the adoption) have effect in relation to the district as if it were a borough.

A council passing any such resolution shall transmit copies of it to the Commissioners and to the Minister of Education, and to the council of the county in which the urban district is situated.

(7) In this section the expression " borough " shall extend to a borough included in a rural district, and in the application of this section to London for any reference to a borough or to a county district there shall be substituted a reference to a metropolitan borough, but the Common Council of the City of London shall have the like powers under this section as the council of a metropolitan borough.

11 Reviews of local charities by local authority

(1) The council of a county or of a borough may, subject to the following provisions of this section, initiate, and carry out in co-operation with the charity trustees, a review of the working of any group of local charities with the same or similar purposes in the council's area, and may make to the Commissioners such report on the review and such recommendations arising from it as the council after consultation with the trustees think fit.

(2) A council having power to initiate reviews under this section may co-operate with other persons in any review by them of the working of local charities in the council's area (with or without other charities), or may join with other persons in initiating and carrying out such a review.

(3) No review initiated by a council under this section shall extend to any charity without the consent of the charity trustees, nor to any ecclesiastical charity.

(4) No review initiated under this section by the council of a borough shall extend to the working in any county of a local charity established for purposes similar or complementary to any services provided by county councils, unless the review so extends with the consent of the council of that county or the council initiating it provides those services in its area under delegated powers.

(5) Subsections (4) to (7) of the last foregoing section shall apply for the purposes of this section as they apply for the purposes of that.

12 Co-operation between charities, and between charities and local authorities

(1) Any local council and any joint board discharging any functions of such a council may make, with any charity established for purposes similar or complementary to services provided by the council or board, arrangements for co-ordinating the activities of the council or board and those of the charity in the interests of persons who may benefit from those services or from the charity, and shall be at liberty to disclose to any such charity in the interests of those persons any information obtained in connection with the services provided by the council or board, whether or not arrangements have been made with the charity under this subsection.

In this subsection " local council" means the council of a county, of a county borough, of a metropolitan borough, of a county district, of a borough included in a rural district or of a rural parish, and includes also the Common Council of the City of London and the Council of the Isles of Scilly.

(2) Charity trustees shall, notwithstanding anything in the trusts of the charity, have power by virtue of this subsection to do all or any of the following things, where it appears to them likely to promote or make more effective the work of the charity, and may defray the expense of so doing out of any income or moneys applicable as income of the charity, that is to say.—

(a) they may co-operate in any review undertaken under the last foregoing section or otherwise of the working of charities or any class of charities;

(b) they may make arrangements with an authority acting under subsection (1) above or with another charity for co-ordinating their activities and those of the authority or of the other charity ;

(c) they may publish information of other charities with a view to bringing them to the notice of those for whose benefit they are intended.