Catalogue description Charity Commission since 1960

The Charity Commission was substantially reconstituted by the Charities Act 1960, which replaced the Charitable Trusts Acts (1853-1891) which had previously defined the role of the Commissioners. At this time responsibility for charities was shared between the Ministry of Education (in respect of educational and recreational charities) and the Charity Commission (in respect of all other types of charity).

The most important changes were the new duty to keep a near-comprehensive public register of charities, the duty to determine charitable status, jurisdiction over unendowed organisations and a consequent interest in fundraising activities of charities. This meant a great expansion in the responsibilities and activities of the departments which maintained a rigorous defence of charitable property. They were also given wider discretion to save and widen imperfect or outdated trust instruments by scheme.

The growth of the welfare state had altered the needs many long-established charities had been created to supply. The problems of a multiplicity of very small, permanently endowed local charities for the relief of poverty were to occupy a significant amount of Charity Commission resources, initially through co-operation with local authorities in"Local Reviews" to prepare for a scheme of the Commissioners rationalising the situation and simplifying administration for the trustees. Further measures were taken in this direction by more flexible procedures introduced by the Charities Act of 1985, necessitating public notice in the area of benefit.

Jurisdiction over educational and recreational charities was passed back to the Charity Commission by the Education Act 1973. This also applied to the jurisdiction over Welsh educational charities that had been passed to the Secretary of State for Wales in 1970.

Following the Woodfield Report of 1987, substantial changes to the 1960 framework were made. A new Charities Act in 1992 was followed by a consolidating Act in 1993. The investments holding service of the Official Custodian was divested and the necessity for trustees to get the Commission's consent to routine land transactions was replaced by a duty to take professional advice. Other changes were aimed at improving the accountability of charities in terms of financial reporting, making formal contracts with professional fundraisers compulsory and giving information direct to the public. The mechanisms by which small charities could be updated, merged or wound up were simplified and the thresholds applying under the 1985 Act raised.

Section 1 (5) of the 1960 Act required the Commissioners to make an annual report to the Secretary of State.