The council of a county F1or county borough or of a district or London borough and the Common Council of the City of London 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.

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 F2the Commission 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 F2the Commission may arrange that F3it will without further request supply a council with particulars of any such changes.

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

A council may employ any voluntary organisation 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.

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.