Parliament

AfC's MESSAGE TO PARLIAMENT, 2002-3 session

There are estimated to be some two million trustees throughout England and Wales. Add to this the volunteers and indeed the donors, without whose generosity charities could not function, and clearly, a very large number of people are either directly involved in, or concerned about the wellbeing of charities and their beneficiaries.

This huge constituency of caring people, and those for whom they care, are the concern of the Association for Charities (AfC), a national association for the support and protection of charity beneficiaries, trustees, volunteers and donors. They need help to make their voice heard in Parliament and defend their interests in government. As recent experience has shown, and the government itself now appears to recognise, it is not enough to leave the sector to the not-so-tender mercies of the Charity Commission and hope that all will be well. It has not been, which is the reason why AfC came into being and presumably also why, in 2001, the Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit, now re-named 'Strategy Unit', was commissioned to carry out a review of the legal and regulatory framework for charities and the voluntary sector, to which of course this Association has contributed.

In May 2002, we wrote to all members of both Houses of Parliament to inform/remind you of the imminent publication of the Cabinet Office's report and to draw your attention to the deficits of the present law, the Charities Act 1993. We are pleased to see that the Report, published September, endorses in particular our strong view that an independent means of appeal for charity people should be built into the system. The text of our letter, as well as our first reactions to the report, can be found on our website www.association4charities.org.uk/parliament.

Those who have kindly responded to our 2002 mailing and/or advertising in the parliamentary journals will, we hope, go on to become parliamentary Friends of this Association. We trust that gradually many more will become aware of us, and of our link with a particularly vital sector of society, and wish to make contact with us.

This country's charitable activity is its heart and soul. Government, in partnership with the voluntary sector, can go so far to deliver services but it will always be individual people who make the difference. Their service to society and contribution to this country's spiritual and moral health needs more overt recognition in parliament and to be reflected in better legislation than exists at present.

Please therefore, help the Association for Charities help charity people and defend charity work by

a) referring your constituents who come to you with charity-related problems or concerns to this Association, which has been set up to help them;

b) becoming a Friend of the AfC and lending your support to our aim to protect charity and charities, particular the smaller ones;

c) helping change charity law by persuading the Home Office to bring forward a bill in line with the recommendations of the Strategy Unit, for inclusion in the Queen's Speech in November 2003.

We in the AfC very much look forward to hearing from YOU in Parliament! We send you our very best wishes for the session 2002-3.

contact@association4charities.org.uk

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