Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014

12 Charitable status to appear on documents etc

(1) A charitable registered society whose registered name does not include the word “charity” or “charitable” must state the fact that it is a charity in legible characters—

(a) in all of its notices, advertisements and other official publications,

(b) in all of its business correspondence,

(c) in all bills of exchange, promissory notes, endorsements, cheques and orders for money or goods, purporting to be signed by or on behalf of the society,

(d) in all conveyances purporting to be executed by or on behalf of the society,

(e) in all its other business documentation, and

(f) on all its websites.

(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to any document wholly in Welsh if the society’s registered name includes the word “elusen” or “elusennol”.

(3) The statement required by subsection (1) must be in English, except that it may be in Welsh if—

(a) the document is otherwise wholly in Welsh, and

(b) the statement consists of or includes the word “elusen” or “elusennol”.

(4) An officer of a registered society, or any other person acting on behalf of a registered society, who—

(a) issues or authorises the issue of a document within subsection (1)(a), (b) or (e) that does not comply with this section,

(b) signs on behalf of the society a document within subsection (1)(c) that does not comply with this section or authorises the signing of such a document on its behalf,

(c) executes on behalf of the society a document within subsection (1)(d) that does not comply with this section or authorises the execution of such a document on its behalf,

(d) causes or authorises the appearance on the internet of a website within subsection (1)(f) that does not comply with this section,

commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

(5) A person convicted of an offence under subsection (4) by virtue of subsection (4)(b) is also personally liable to the holder of the document for the amount specified in the document unless that amount is duly paid by the society.

(6) For the purposes of this section—

(a) “conveyance” means any document for the creation, transfer, variation or extinction of an interest in land;

(b) references to execution include—

(i) purported execution, and

(ii) the doing of any act which (though not by itself execution) combined with other acts constitutes execution or purported execution;

(c) references to a society’s website include a section of any other person’s website that relates to the society if—

(i) the society placed the section on the other person’s website, or

(ii) the society authorised it to be placed there.