“Guidance issued by the Charity Commission for England and Wales included errors of law in respect of the public benefit requirement contained in the Charities Act 2006 on independent schools which charged fees. Whether the public benefit requirement was satisfied depended on the facts of each case. The correct approach was to look at what a trustee, acting in the interests of the community as a whole, would do in all the circumstances of the particular school under consideration and to ask what provision ought to be made once the threshold of benefit going beyond the de minimis or token level had been met. There was no reason why the provision of scholarships or bursaries to students who could pay some, but not all, of the fees should not be seen as for the public benefit. Provided that the operation of the school was seen as being for the public benefit, with an appropriate level of benefit for the poor, a subsidy to the not so well off was to be taken account of in the public benefit.”
WLR Daily, 13th October 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
