Charity collections permits

We are responsible for licensing charitable collections within Lichfield District. Charitable collections fall into two categories:

• house to house collections for money or property
• street collections, which include collections for cash or the sale of articles in the street.

If articles are sold for any form of personal gain or as a commercial activity then a street trading consent will be required.

The licensing of charitable collections is regulated by two separate acts of parliament:

• The Police, Factories, etc. (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1916 as amended by schedule 29 of the Local Government Act 1972 which regulates collections of money or sales of articles for charitable purposes in street and public places
• The House to House Collections Act 1939 which regulates collections of money or other articles made by means of going from house to house.

Both acts give us powers to write regulations and policies to control charitable collections.

This policy forms our charitable collections policy (“local policy”) that will apply to street and house to house collection activities in the Lichfield District area.

The purpose of the policy is to:

• Safeguard the interests of both public donors and beneficiaries
• Facilitate well organised collections by bona fide charitable institutions and to ensure that good standards are met
• Prevent unlicensed collections from taking place
• Give detailed guidance on the application of the law relating to charitable collections
• Provide a clear idea of the requirements that charitable organisations, promoters and collectors must meet before, during and after collections take place
• Detail the matters that will be taken into consideration when determining an application

This policy is designed to ensure that:

• People who wish to donate to charity, through street collections, are able to do so in good faith knowing that the money or products they donate will directly benefit the charity
• There is transparency, consistency and fairness in determining applications
• Eligible requests are accommodated, subject to capacity and availability on certain days and locations
• Applications are made in a timely way, neither too early nor too late
• Collectors operate within the law and act fairly in their dealings with the public
• Collections do not cause nuisance to the public
• Fair maximum limits for applicants are set
• A fair balance between local and national causes is achieved

This policy will be reviewed where there are any changes in legislation or where not, every three years