Charity Commissioners to Regulate Welsh Universities
The implementation of the Charity Act 2006 requires the setting up of regulators for what are known as exempt charities.
Exempt charities have not previously been allowed to register with the Commission because it’s been assumed that they were adequately overseen by other public bodies, such as the Financial Services Authority or Housing Corporation. The Act now makes sure these charities are also monitored for their compliance to charity law.The Act puts previously exempt charities into two categories:
If no suitable regulator exists then a previously exempt charity will stop being exempt and will have to register with the Commission. To ease the transition, only these charities with an annual income of over £100k will have to register with us. All these charities will come under our jurisdiction – the £100k threshold for registration is an interim level and may be reduced in the future, but this won’t happen for at least 5 years when there will be a review of the Act.
The Office of the Third Sector are working with principal regulators to agree how the new arrangements will work and to make sure they have the powers they need for this role, and will take some time.”
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will regulate most English universities; however, the Charity Commissioners have stated that they will regulate Welsh universities themselves as no principle regulator has been identified for this task. Under the new Act, the regulator will have the power to remove the charitable status of any university breaching charity law.
This leaves the future of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) in some doubt as to its future role and purpose. This in turn is likely to lead to an increase in tuition fees caused by the lack of confidence in the regulation of Welsh universities and further decline in student numbers from other parts of the UK.
The Charity Commissioners are to regulate Welsh universities under the new Charity Act 2006; they will have the power to remove the charitable status of any university in breach of charity law.
