Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008

Publicity relating to schemes

39.—(1) The Commission may not—

(a) make any order under this Act to establish a scheme for the administration of a charity, or

(b) submit such a scheme to the Court or the Department for an order giving it effect,

unless, before doing so, the Commission has complied with the publicity requirement in subsection (2).

This is subject to any disapplication of that requirement under subsection (4).

(2) The publicity requirement is that the Commission must give public notice of its proposals, inviting representations to be made to it within a period specified in the notice.

(3) The time when any such notice is given or any such communication takes place is to be decided by the Commission.

(4) The Commission may determine that the publicity requirement is not to apply in relation to a particular scheme if it is satisfied that—

(a) by reason of the nature of the scheme, or

(b) for any other reason,

compliance with the requirement is unnecessary.

(5) Where the Commission gives public notice of any proposals under this section, the Commission—

(a) must take into account any representations made to it within the period specified in the notice, and

(b) may (without further notice) proceed with the proposals either without modifications or with such modifications as it thinks desirable.

(6) Where the Commission makes an order under this Act to establish a scheme for the administration of a charity, a copy of the order must be available, for at least a month after the order is published, for public inspection at all reasonable times at the Commission’s office.

(7) Any public notice of any proposals which is to be given under this section—

(a) is to contain such particulars of the proposals, or such directions for obtaining information about them, as the Commission thinks sufficient and appropriate, and

(b) is to be given in such manner as the Commission thinks sufficient and appropriate.