In the second of her regular policy reports, Ida Karlsson, CFG's Policy Officer, wraps up what's been going on in Parliament and further afield, covering the aid budget cut, new OSCR guidance and dormant assets.
It’s been a busy two weeks for charities since the last update, with plenty happening in Parliament and beyond.
First up, The National Insurance Contributions Bill had its Third Reading in the House of Lords on 4 March and, as is the normal procedure, it was a simple affair with the amendments staying the same.
Peers showed strong support for charities, calling for small charities to be exempt from the increase in Employer National Insurance Contributions (ERNICs). They also added that there should be, within six months of the Act passing, a review of the impact of the measures for charities - something CFG fully supports.
Next, the Bill heads to the House of Commons on 19 March, where MPs will consider the Lords’ amendments. It’s hard to say what level of support these amendments will get in the Commons, but CFG will do what we can to ensure MPs understand why these measures are so important.
In addition to CFG’s own advocacy efforts, we encourage those smaller charities who would be affected by the exemption to contact their own local MP’s and explain the impact that the ERNICs increase will have on their organisation.
Meanwhile, MPs from across the political spectrum have been pushing back against the “brutal” cut to the aid budget. A quick recap: the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget was cut from 0.5% of gross national income (GNI) to 0.3% in order to boost defence spending by 2027. Given the ongoing events on the international stage, a reversal looks unlikely any time soon. However, the cross-party’s request for an impact assessment of this cut seems far from excessive.
On the volunteering front, in light of a fall in volunteer numbers nationally, a group of charities has written to the Prime Minister, calling for 35 hours of paid statutory volunteering leave per year. The idea? To remove financial barriers and enable more employees to volunteer. Sounds good to us - let’s see if the government takes it forward.
Now, onto philanthropy. The UK's current approach to philanthropy falls short of its potential and CFG has for a long time been advocating for the government to promote philanthropic giving (see more on this in our Spending Review ‘asks’).
The Culture Minister Chris Bryant recently spoke about philanthropic giving, stating that there is a need for a change in how charitable giving is described to boost philanthropy. The Centre for Social Justice’s (CSJ) estimates that match-funding could release dormant assets of £8.22bn for small and medium-sized charities.
And finally, the OSCR has released new guidance on charity trustee disqualification covering definition of charity trustees, disqualification criteria, exemptions, and additional upcoming changes in summer 2025. Read the full guidance here.
Until next time!