ABSTRACT
This chapter examines important issues including whether it was possible for the Commission to be both friend and policeman, to be both adviser and regulator. The initiative for charity law reform came from the voluntary sector itself with the Deakin Report, followed by the report of the Charity Law Reform Advisory Group in 2001. The Charity Law Reform Advisory Group Report examined the case for a new definition of charity but rejected both a wide definition and a statutory codification in favour of application of the same strong public benefit test across all four heads of charity. The Strategy Unit also recommended introducing a single public benefit test for all charities, reforms of the Commission, a Charity Appeals Tribunal, and a new incorporated legal structure for charities. The government's response, published a year later, accepted most of the recommendations.
