Charity Tribunal Releases Decision In Full Fact Appeal
The Charity Tribunal's decision in the appeal of Full Fact against the Charity Commission's refusal to register it as a charitable organisation, has recently been published in full. The decision raises interesting points regarding the charitable purpose of education and, perhaps more controversially, the extent to which the Charity Commission can consider the activities of the applicant organisation when making its decision whether or not to grant charitable status.
Full Fact is a not-for-profit organisation which checks facts used by the media and politicians and independently verifies their accuracy. In 2009, Full Fact applied to the Charity Commission to be registered as a charity. Its application was rejected.
In April 2010, following lengthy correspondence with the Commission, Full Fact amended its objects. However, its application was again rejected by the Commission. The Commission's decision was made on the grounds that whilst the verification of facts used in public debates might be capable of furthering the advancement of citizenship for the public benefit, it would have to be done to an objective standard using non-political and non-partisan methodology. The Commission was not satisfied that Full Fact could demonstrate that its activities would be 'sufficiently rigorous, objective and independent' and therefore felt that it would not be providing public benefit.
Full Fact appealed against this decision.
The Appeal
The Tribunal examined Full Fact's amended objects:.
Promoting the advancement of citizenship and community development Promoting the advancement of civic responsibility and engagement Promoting the advancement of public education in relation to purposes 1 and 2 above Promoting informed public discourse and debate on matters of public concern in relation to purposes 1, 2 and 3. Both the Commission and the Tribunal agreed that purpose 1 was charitable. However, there were issues in relation to the remaining purposes.
Promoting the advancement of civil responsibility and engagement
The Tribunal acknowledged that the promotion of civil responsibility is a recognised charitable purpose. However, the inclusion of 'engagement' rendered the purpose ambiguous. Was it to be read as 'engagement' or 'civil engagement'? In the US, for example, civil engagement encompasses a whole range of activities and has a distinctly political tone. The Tribunal highlighted the fact that 'engagement' was not always positive in nature.
The...
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