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See also these related web pages :
“,,Putting their diaries of collection licences on their websites is the single, most effective thing that councils can do to reduce the problem of misleading/bogus collections - so that charities raise more money. It's extremely cost-effective.
England & Wales in dark red
In practice, virtually every council in England and Wales keeps a 'register' (list) of charitable collection licences. These days, they're almost always in electronic format (eg a spreadsheet or Word file). Most councils keep them for many years - eg 10 years or more. For more on this, see our "Registers of licences" page (link above).
Most entries in these registers are "dead" - in other words, the collection period has finished.
However, at any one time, roughly 5-10% of the entries in registers are "live" licences. With these, either :
Most councils keep a diary of these "live" licences - so they know which collections haven't started yet, or are in progress. Also, councils are required to get 'returns' from each collector - soon after a collection is finished. 'Returns' are financial reports - they give the income, expenditure and net proceeds. Having a diary helps the officers to ensure they get the returns.
Some councils (too few) have realised that it's helpful to everyone if they make the diary (or a summary of it) public - for example by putting it on their website. Below, we've compiled an annotated list of some of these councils (we'll add more later).
We praise ALL the councils listed below for taking the trouble to add diaries of licences to their websites (and then updating them). Any comments, suggestions or criticisms we make are meant to be helpful and constructive.
Regarding licensing, we only deal with house-to-house collections - it's our specialism. However, we appreciate that most council licensing officers have to be generalists ("jack-of-all-trades") - knowing about a large number of licensing regimes (50 or so) - such as taxis, alcohol and entertainment (as well as charitable collections). No one could expect licensing officers to be an expert in every field.
Finding council's diaries: A good way of doing this is to search Google for charities which do collections, commercial collectors and applicants, such as :
The key aim of licensing charitable collections is to ensure that only "genuine", good-value collections take place. This is done by requiring charities/collectors to go through the licensing process - to scrutinise them (approving some collectors, refusing others). Collectors which don't have licences can be stopped and (where appropriate) prosecuted.
However, how do people know which collections have a licence? OK, in theory, you can phone your council's licensing department to find out. But you can only do this during working hours (eg Mon-Fri 9am-5pm), and it's impractical for council staff to dictate the whole diary to you (word-for-word) over the phone.
The solution is for each council to upload their diary of collections to their website. Then anyone can look at it online, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - instantly, free of charge. Virtually all councils keep an electronic diary of collections for their own use. So the cost of putting it on the Internet (and updating it) is minimal. Indeed it can save the council money - as they don't have to use staff time answering routine phone calls from people asking for details of current licensed collections.
Putting their collection diaries on their websites is the single, most effective thing that councils can do to reduce the problem of misleading/bogus collections.- so that genuine charities raise more money It's extremely cost-effective.
Precedents. Numerous licensing regimes already have registers and/or diaries on the Net - such as alcohol/entertainment, gaming, Environment Agency waste permits, planning applications (see the Registers page and the Licensing regimes page).
Why not do the same with charitable collections? The information in the collection registers and diaries is public information - it's not private or confidential.
Unfortunately, many councils don't put their diaries of collection licences on their website.
We'd like to see it recommended by central government or made compulsory. It would be very cost-effective. Our rough estimate is that for every £1 spent on it by local councils, over £100 extra would be raised by genuine charities - as it would greatly increase the scrutiny of collections, reducing fraud.
. . . firstly, by checking whether your council's licensing department has an online diary of collection licences on their website.
Secondly, if your council hasn't put their diary of charitable collections on their website, diplomatically try to persuade them to add an online diary :
If your council is reluctant, contact your local elected councillors, your MP, the media and local charities. Let us know how you get on. Contact us.
Statistics: On this page (at Oct 2012) we've given details of around 30 councils with diaries of collections. Our rough estimate is that around 80 (?) councils have diaries. This represents around 25% of the 300 or so councils in England and Wales which are licensing authorities (see the Statistics page). We'd like to see the figure at 100% - and we're confident that bona fide charities want this figure too.
Respected charities which will gain from this include :
1. HTML web page format: This has unique advantages :
Examples of web page diaries: Guildford Council, Metropolitan Police.
2. Adobe Reader PDF files: Most users have Adobe Reader software (it's free).
It's a universal 'output' format - using information produced by any editing software - eg Word or Excel.
3. Word files: All the diaries we've seen use .doc format - except a couple that use .docx (".docx" isn't a good idea as you need Microsoft Office 2007 or later to read the file.)
4. Excel spreadsheet files: If you haven't got spreadsheet software on your computer, you can download reader software (a viewer) for free from Microsoft.
Alternatively, install the "Open Office" suite (free).
Examples of diaries using Excel: Doncaster Council, Northamptonshire Licensing Partnership
We haven't encountered any diaries using the following formats :
- ASCII text / .rtf / image / database
Some councils give all the collections in one file. Others have several files (eg one per month).
Structure: free text or a table (ie rows and columns). A table is preferable.
Period: This varies from 3 months to one year.
Period into the future: This varies below from 4 weeks to one year.
Alas, some councils below are using a calendar year. This means you get up to 12 months of future collections listed at the beginning of the year - but by December you can only see one month ahead. They need to switch to a 'rolling forward' diary system - eg the current calendar year AND the following year. We know of one council (not listed below) which has diary entries (bookings) for collections going three years into the future.
Coverage - house-to-house vs street:
QA
Often, it's not really the fault of the officers compiling the diary - they haven't had specialist training in databases or presentation of information. Also, sometimes (alas) it's delegated to inexperienced, junior staff. And in one case, we discovered that the (well-meaning) compiler was dyslexic.
As well as commenting on councils' diaries of collections, with some entries below we've made comments about their web pages dealing with licensing of collections.
Their web pages are well-meaning. However, with some councils' pages, there's room for improvement :
COUNCIL | COUNTY |
---|---|
Ashford Borough Council - see our Councils' registers of licences page |
Kent |
Bassetlaw District Council NEW | Nottinghamshire |
Bedford Borough Council | Bedfordshire |
Blackpool Council | Lancashire |
Brentwood Borough Council | Essex |
Broadland District Council Updated | Norfolk |
Bury Council - see our Councils' registers of licences page |
Greater Manchester (NW England) |
Castle Point Borough Council | Essex |
Corby Borough Council - see Northants Licensing Partnership |
Northamptonshire |
Daventry District Council - see Northants Licensing Partnership |
Northamptonshire |
Doncaster Council | South Yorkshire |
East Northamptonshire Council (ENC) - see Northants Licensing Partnership |
Northamptonshire |
Eastbourne Borough Council | East Sussex |
Elmbridge Borough Council | Surrey |
Erewash Borough Council NEW | Derbyshire |
Exeter City Council - see our page on the Council's licensing register |
Devon |
Forest of Dean District Council NEW | Gloucestershire |
Guildford Borough Council NEW | Surrey |
Harrogate Borough Council - see entry immediately below this table |
North Yorkshire |
Kettering Borough Council - see Northants Licensing Partnership |
Northamptonshire |
Mid Devon District Council | Devon |
Milton Keynes Council | Buckinghamshire |
New Forest District Council NEW | Hampshire |
North Norfolk District Council | Norfolk |
Northamptonshire Licensing Partnership (a consortium of 5 districts/boroughs) NEW |
Northamptonshire |
Portsmouth City Council (PCC) - see our Councils' registers of licences page |
Hampshire |
Runnymede Borough Council | Surrey |
St Edmundsbury Borough Council | Suffolk |
Selby District Council NEW | North Yorkshire |
Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) - see our Councils' registers of licences page |
Kent |
South Derbyshire District Council | Derbyshire |
Southampton City Council | Hampshire |
Tandridge District Council | Surrey |
Three Rivers District Council | Hertfordshire |
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council - see our Councils' registers of licences page |
Kent |
Vale of Glamorgan Council NEW | South Wales |
Warwick District Council | Warwickshire |
Wellingborough Borough Council - see Northants Licensing Partnership |
Northamptonshire |
West Lancashire Borough Council | Lancashire |
Wigan Council | Lancashire |
Metropolitan Police Service (they license charitable collections in Greater London, excluding the City of London) NEW |
Greater London |
Note: With the table above, you can re-sort it by the second column (A-Z by county) and/or filter it using the free TableTools2 add-on with the Firefox browser.
Note: So far, we haven't added separate entries for these councils below. NEW
Note - updating: If you work for one of the councils below and you amend your web pages/diaries in response to our comments, please let us know and we'll amend our comments below accordingly. Contact us.
With each entry below, we've added the date when we scrutinised their diaries. Since then, the council may have changed their diaries and website.
However, we hope our comments below are a useful guide to the issues in general.
= Worksop, Retford etc. www.bassetlaw.gov.uk
At July 2011, Google took us to a 60-page agenda of the Licensing Committee, with useful lists of licences - a PDF file.
At Oct 2012, their introductory licensing web page only lists "street collections". However, when you go to this "street" page you find they've also got information on charitable house-to-house collections (and direct debit mandate collections). This is confusing. In licensing, the term "street collections" has a special, narrow meaning (under the 1916 Act) - namely 'static' (stationary) collectors (eg in shopping centres). House-to-house collections are different - see the 1939 Act.
On this page, they've put a link called "Monthly Street Collections" to a file.
Unfortunately, this is in proprietary ".docx" file format (needing MS Office 2007+) - not the more compatible format of ".doc" or ".pdf".
We had to convert the file to ".doc" format (using an online utility) before we could read it. It turned out to be a single-page Word document, headed:
"Street collections, house to house collections and direct debit mandate authorisations : collections : October 2012".
There were 2 house-to-house collections listed, of which one was for clothing :
The entry above thus gives: dates / area / collector / charity
Alas, it appears there's no information on the website about :
There was a helpful note as follows: "If you have any concerns of unauthorised collections taking place then please report them to the Licensing Enforcement Officers on 01909-. . ."
Bedford Borough Council: House Collections Register
We looked at this register on 22 Dec 2011.
This register has a very useful table - with eight columns - as follows :
Col | Column heading | Example (month: June 2011) |
---|---|---|
1 | Name of Individual Holding the Licence | Pauline Ann Mason |
2 | Name of Charity or Fund Benefitting | East Anglian Air Ambulance |
3 | Permit No: | 6 |
4 | Period in which Collection is to take/took place | 18-30/07/2011 |
5 | Area of Collection | Whole Borough |
6 | Collection for Money/Goods/Other | Clothing |
7 | Total Value Collected | £1794.00 |
8 | Total Value of Deductions | £1363.44 |
The register has some excellent (unusual) features :
There are 37 collections listed. They are all for the period Jan to Aug 2011. We're puzzled why there are no entries after Aug. So we assume they're not intending it to be a diary of current/future collections, alas.
It would help if the register gave the name of the collection company as well as the charity.
They do give the name of the individual, but this is of little use to people. For example there's a collection listed by PACE [charity] - with the name of the individual (Mr William Souvatzoglu). We know he's the boss of GT Recycling Initiatives Ltd (who collect for PACE). But why not spell this out? After all, when you get a bag from PACE, the text printed on it refers to the company (GT Recycling) - it doesn't name the individuals running the company.
In one case, they've listed a collector ('Gold Fish Textile Recycle Ltd') but they don't say which charity it's for. Also, we don't understand why it says £0.00 in the "total value of deductions" column.
Another entry just says "Care2Give" - but this a commercial collector - there's no mention of which charity is involved. The sum raised (£22,000) is larger than all the other collections put together. The "value of deductions" figure is given as £0 - is this correct?
In summary, we suggest the Council do the following :
However, these are minor points - it's a good register overall.
Update: Since making the comments above, the Council have improved the register.
House to house collections permit > Publications web page
At 13 Dec 2011, there's a 6-page PDF file on this page called :"
It lists collections up to 2015 inclusive*.
It's a table with four columns: Month / Charity / Dates / HOE*
HOE stands for Home Office Exemption.
The entries in the Charity column take the form of: charity (collection co and individual)*.
Example: Tree of Hope Childrens Charity (SOS Clothes Ltd – Gorodnicenko Mantas)
Direct debits are indicated*. However, there's no other indication of type of collection (ie cash vs goods).
*We've asterisked the items above which are useful/above-average.
Blackpool's website also has a list of street collection permits (it's also a PDF table).
We looked at their website on 4th Dec 2011.
Alas, there's no house-to-house diary.
However, there is a "Street collection diary"
It's a web page. Each entry has 3 components: date / charity / location
At 4th Dec 2011, it listed collections for Aug-Dec 2011. Typical entries (re Oct 2011) :
"SAT 1ST - GUIDE DOGS - SHENFIELD, SHENFIELD STATION
SAT 8TH - MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY CAMPAIGN - BRENTWOOD HIGH STREET"
We suggest they :
www.broadland.gov.uk "House to house collections"
At Dec 2011, there were three 1-page Adobe PDF files (landscape format) - one per month (the current Quarter). Below is an extract from their Oct 2011 file :
Date | Charity | Collection Type | Locations |
---|---|---|---|
31 | Salvation Army (exempt) | H-H | NR10, 3, 4, NR11 7, 8 [etc] |
24-30 | Cure Leukaemia | H-H | All Broadland |
At 10th Oct 2012, things were more sophisticated.
There was a fancy, interactive "House to house & street collections register" with five columns (the Status column is new) :
Type | Date(s) | Charity | Collection area | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
House to house | 01/11/2012 - 30/11/2012 | Make-A-Wish Foundation | All of Broadland | Exempt |
The register above had 188 records (rows), of which 151 were house-to-house and 37 were street collections.
We were puzzled that there weren't any of the obvious clothing collection names there.
It's a nice register. However, it would help if it included the following information :
www.castlepoint.gov.uk =Canvey Island, Hadleigh, South Benfleet and Thundersley
We looked at their website on 28 Oct 2012.
http://apps.castlepoint.gov.uk/cpapps/index.cfm?fa=calendar
This calendar lists various types of events taking place in the Borough (7 categories).
They're colour-coded - eg Council meetings (dark blue), street collections (pale green). Their 'street collections' category includes charitable house-to-house collections.
You can view the calendar in two ways :
House-to-house clothing collections listed include :
The section on street collections has the following link:
" A summary of the regulation relating to this licence"
This link is well intended. However, it takes you to the Charities Act 1992 (on the www.legislation.gov.uk website).
In our view, this is incorrect. The rules on charitable collections in the 1992 Act have never been implemented. Instead, they should have referred to the Police, Factories, etc (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1916. See the Acts and Regulations page.
There's no mention of H2H National Exemption Orders (NEOs).
There's no information about bogus collections.
This listed various types of licences - eg alcohol/entertainment.
There were 2 house-to-house collection licences. In both cases the Name entry was: "Albert Sutton".
Unfortunately, there's no mention of which charity or collection organisation is involved.
However, when we searched Google for ' "Albert Sutton" clothing collection', we found there's an Albert Sutton who works for the Troop Aid charity. The collection dates exactly matched those given on the "Calendar of Events".
See their Licensing >> House to House Collection Permit page.
At 6 Dec 2011, this page had a link to a "House to House Collections Register".
Copy of this Register at 6 Dec 2011 (our thanks to the Council)
This is an Excel spreadsheet file. There are 28 entries (rows). The five column headings are :
Expiry Date / Society Name / Registered Address / Collection Area / Permit Number
The expiry dates are from 31 Oct 2011 to 31 Oct 2012 - a good range, well into the future.
They've chosen to use the word "Society" (rather than "Charity").
They call it " Register" - but don't forget it's only part of the Register (the live (diary) entries).
It's above-average quality. However, it would be helpful if they did the following :
At 17 Oct 2012, on the "House to House Collection Licences" page, there's a link to a file called : "HOUSE TO HOUSE COLLECTIONS 2012 CALENDAR"
It's a 3-page PDF file (output from Microsoft Word) - a table with 3 columns. There are 85 collections (an unusually large number). Below is an extract :
Date(s) | Name of Charity/Society | HOE/EBC |
---|---|---|
15 August 12 – 14 August 13 | Macmillion Cancer Support/Clothes Aid | HOE |
5 November – 11 November | Intersecond Ltd/ Mercy Ships UK | EBC |
HOE indicates Home Office Exemption certificate.
EBC indicates the collection has been licensed by Eastbourne Borough Council.
Good points :
Our suggestions :
At Oct 2012, there's a file called: "House to House Collections Public Register"
It's a 2-page PDF file, output from a spreadsheet file called "house to house col pub reg.xls"
It's landscape format, with a table of 5 columns :
There are 7 collections listed - 5 of which are Little Treasures Children's Trust.
We suggest they add the following information :
It appears they don't list collections by charities with National Exemption Orders.
There's also a "Public Register: List of all permits currently issued for Street Collections".
There's a useful "Charitable Collections Policy" document - a 13-page PDF file.
At December 2012, there's a useful file on their website, headed :
"House to house collections register 2012"
It's a 3-page Acrobat PDF document (output from Microsoft Word) with a table of 5 columns and 44 rows (collections). Extract :
Name of charity and/or collector | Collection area | Licence number/Type | Collection dates | Exemption / Direct Debit |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tree of Hope / SOS Clothes Ltd | All of Borough | 2015 - Clothes | 10 Sept - 10 Nov | |
Rotary Club of Church Wilne | Ockbrook/ Borrowash/ Draycott | 2019 - Money | 11-21 Dec |
It's a nice register :
There's a helpful link to the Cabinet Office's list of National Exemption Orders (NEOs).
There's a useful section aimed at householders headed "Bogus Charity Clothing Collections".
Links: There are helpful web links to 7 organisations - the IoF, PFRA, the Charity Commission, CharityBags, FRSB, CRA and the Cabinet Office.
There's a PDF file called "Street collections register 2012".
It's a 5-page table with 5 columns.
Elsewhere on the Council's website there are some useful, meaty (unusual) documents on enforcement policy, for example :
www2.erewash.gov.uk/moderngov/documents/s2764/EnfPolicyAppendix1.pdf
= "Enforcement Policy" (draft v4, Oct 2008) - 14 pages
These documents deal with enforcement generally. However, they're also useful regarding illegal charitable collections.
At Oct 2012, their licensing page on house-to-house collections has a link entitled :
"Diary for House to House Collections"
This loads a document headed: "House to house collections calendar 2012"
This is a PDF file, output from a Word v2010 document, with 17 pages (landscape format).
There are 12 tables, one for each month of the year. They have 7 columns. Below is an extract :
June [2012]
Lic. No. | Collector & Name of Charity | Area of Collection | Type of Collection | Date From | Date To | Exempt |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H82 | East London Textiles for Little Children’s Trust | Cinderford, Coleford, Lydney & Newent | Textiles | 25th | 30th | No |
/ | SALVATION ARMY | Forest Of Dean | Money | YES |
This is an excellent diary :
The licensing page includes a helpful link to the Cabinet Office's List of Exempt charities.
They link to the copy on the NationalArchives.gov.uk site (which is slightly out of date).
It would be better if they linked to the up-to-date 'master' copy on the GOV.UK website - see our page on National Exemption Orders for details.
Some minor points - it would help if they did the following :
There's a commendable paragraph on potentially illegal collections :
"If a resident wishes to check whether a house to house collection has a permit they may check the diary above. If a collection is taking place that does not appear to hold a permit, please contact us as soon as possible with details of any vehicle involved, if possible."
www.guildford.gov.uk At October 2012, their website has the following web pages :
The "returns 2012" page has a web table of 6 columns.
Below we've listed the headings and some typical entries :
Dates of collection | Charity | Collecting organisation | Home Office Exemption | Amount raised | Amount deducted for expenses |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 Feb - 29 Feb | Azzara Do Not Delay | Intersecond Ltd | No | £480.25 | £371.91 |
8 Oct - 14 Oct | Little Treasures Children's Trust | East London Textiles Ltd | No | Awaiting Return | Awaiting Return |
The two "returns" pages are high quality and helpful.
However, we'd suggest the following minor changes :
At 4th Dec 2011, the Licensing > Charities page has a link to a one-page Word file called "Charity Collection list".
It's headed: "Charitable Collections in Mid Devon:
Street and House to House Collections
Week commencing Monday 21 November 2011"
Each entry (line) has four parts: type of collection | charity/collector | area | date
Example :
"House to House – Clothes Aid, Make a Wish – Whole District – until 1/1/12"
We suggest they add the type of house-to-house collection (money vs clothing).
At Oct 2012, we looked at the licensing page for house to house collections. We couldn't find a diary or register.
However, Google took us to a file on their website with details of house-to-house collections for the previous year (2011) :
www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/licensing/documents/House_to_House_spreadsheet_2011.xls
This is an Excel spreadsheet. There are 12 worksheets - one per month (Jan-Dec).
Each sheet has 7 columns. Below is an extract from the Oct 2011 sheet :
Date Received | Applicant Name | Charity | Area of collection | Date Collecting from | Date Collecting to | Permit Number |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011-03-11 | Mr Antanas Dzinga, SOS Clothes Ltd | Tree of Hope | Whole Borough | 2011-08-22 | 2011-10-16 | 113663 |
At Oct 2012, we looked at the licensing page for street collection permits.
Near the bottom, it states :
The public register of the current Street Collection Permits that have been
issued is available by clicking on the following link:
Street Collection Permit - Public Register
This Public Register lists collections for 2012. This too is an Excel spreadsheet.
There's a single worksheet, with 12 sets of columns, one set for each month of the year. There are 31 rows for the days of the month. Some thought has gone into producing it - eg colour-coding :
www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/licensing/documents/C_-_Street_Collections_2012.xls
At Oct 2012, there's a web page headed :
"New Forest District Council
Licensed House to House Collections Register"
Below is a link to it :
www.newforest.gov.uk/licact/HouseCollections.cfm
This is a plain (but effective) web page. There are no notes; it just consists of the heading and a web table of 3 columns as follows (we've included one entry) :
Charity name and area covered | Collection start | Collection end |
---|---|---|
East London Textiles Ltd (for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research) - Whole Area |
01/02/2012 | 31/12/2012 |
With the first column, as well as (1) charity name and (2) area covered, it includes (3) the name of the commercial collector (where appropriate) - which is helpful.
So, in effect, it's a 5-column table.
The quality of data entry is good and the entries are consistent.
It would be helpful if they added the following information :
Exemptions. The Council's page on house-to-house collection licensing states that exemptions are obtained from the Charity Commission. This is one of several (well-meaning) council websites we've seen that (incorrectly) indicate that the Charity Commission is responsible. Exemptions are obtained from the Cabinet Office (not the Charity Commission). It's disturbing that incorrect information like this can continue on a website for years without anyone spotting the error.
There's a very useful page called "Registers and Pending Applications"
This has helpful links to the H2H Register described above (and to a street collections Register). However, we're puzzled by the heading above these links, which says "Charities Act" :
There's also a useful street collections register on their website.
At 12 Oct 2012, we're pleased to see there's a house-to-house register.
It's a file called: "House to house collections register (by month and area)" :
www.north-norfolk.gov.uk/files/lic_register_housecollection.pdf
It's a useful 2-page PDF file (output from Crystal Reports) with 17 collection entries.
There's 4 columns: Charity / From Date / To Date / Licence No
Also, they give the area covered, and we're pleased to see they give the name of the collector.
We suggest they add the type of collection (money or clothes).
It says: "In certain circumstances, responsibility for issuing a licence has been referred to Town/Parish Councils."
This is intriguing - we've never come across this before (delegation).
There's a section as follows :
". . . Some of the larger charities, e.g. Christian Aid, Help The Aged, have a Charity Commission Exemption from applying for a licence.
The Home Office issue Exemption Orders to large charities which make regular House to House Collections." [bold added by us]
This section is well-intentioned - but it needs to be amended :
There's a note saying collections by charities with Exemption Orders are not listed in the Council's PDF register. However, we feel it would be helpful if they did include them (most councils do). It's confusing for the public if they only have information about licences.
Also, it would help if they gave a link to the list of National Exemption Orders (NEOs) on the Cabinet Office website (see link above).
There's also a street collections register on their website (it's a PDF file too).
www.east-northamptonshire.gov.uk/licensing
Information as at Oct 2012.
This is a consortium of 5 district and borough councils :
- Corby, Daventry, East Northamptonshire, Kettering, Wellingborough
The partnership is based at the Thrapston offices of East Northamptonshire Council (ENC).
(By the way, Northampton Borough Council isn't part of the partnership.)
There's a downloadable file called:
"Licensing Collection Diaries House to House Collections"
It's an Excel spreadsheet file (.xls). You can view it online and/or download it.
It has tabs for 5 worksheets - one for each of the districts/boroughs (A-Z).
Each sheet has 9 columns (A-I). They're headed as follows :
Title | First Name | Surname | Address1 | Charity | From Date | To Date | Area | Home Office Exempt? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ms | Monica | [xxxxxx] | Audosta Ltd | Woodlands Cancer Care | Saturday, September 01, 2012 | Friday, August 30, 2013 | Whole of Borough | no |
They use the Address1 column for the name of the collector.
It's a good, useful diary. However, it would help if they did the following :
The website has a downloadable 9-page PDF document called:
"East Northamptonshire Council House to House Collections Policy"
The website also has a downloadable spreadsheet file of street collection diaries (which covers all 5 districts/boroughs).
"Public Charitable Collection Diary and Returns 2011"
At Dec 2011, it's a table. It includes two very useful columns headed :
- Total sum raised
- Expenses deducted from proceeds
After this table, there are two excellent lists, headed as follows :
"Please note that the following commercial clothing collections have been or are operating in the borough but have not been licensed or authorised to collect : "
"The Following Commercial Clothing Collection companies have been refused a licence to collect in this borough : "
This is one of the best collection diaries we've come across so far. It oozes quality.
See also Tandridge District Council (also Surrey) for a similar diary - entry below.
www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk =West Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill etc)
At 15 Oct 2012, we were pleased to see that house-to-house collections were included in their "Licensing Public Register". This uses software by LalPac Ltd (a dedicated licensing package used by many councils). LalPac is part of Idox plc. The Council started using the software in 2011.
The register contains details of all types of licences - eg alcohol.
There are 10 house-to-house collection licences (all with "HH" prefixes).
There are 5 columns. Below, we give the 5 headings and two entries :
Licence Number | Name | Issued | Commences | Expires |
---|---|---|---|---|
HH0007 | Louise DUFTY | 14/10/2011 | 01/11/2011 | 31/10/2012 |
HH0008 | INTERSECOND LTD | 02/07/2012 | 11/07/2012 | 07/07/2013 |
Eight of the 10 items in the Name column are individuals, not organisations (charities or collectors). So the entries are more-or-less useless. For example, with the entry above, who is "Louise Dufty"? Which charity (or collector) does she represent? Any collection leaflet or bag won't give her name.
With the two collections that do give the name of an organisation, they only give the name of a company - the commercial collector (Intersecond Ltd and East London Textiles Ltd). So you still don't know which charity is involved (most collection companies collect for several charities).
It says: " Click the Licence Number for futher [sic] details". However, when you do this, you get exactly the same information as in the table.
Assuming we've explored this register properly, it's a poor register.
(Their street collections register is better - see below.)
We suggest :
We've contacted LalPac Ltd and discussed the issues with them.
We've suggested that the company amend their software in relation to charitable house-to-house and street collection licences.
Alternatively, the Council could put the house-to-house register in a more flexible file format - eg an HTML web page, Word, Excel or PDF. For more on this, see the 'General comments' section near the top of this page.
See our Councils' registers of licences page for details of a more-or-less identical house-to-house register (also using LalPac software) to be found on the website of Bury Council. We've included a screengrab image.
Charitable street collection licences are included in their register (code "SC").
With these, we're pleased to see there's an extra column headed "Operator".
This lists the name of the charity.
At 17 Oct 2012, there were 29 entries - eg Salvation Army, Cancer Research UK, Marie Curie Cancer Research. The quality of data entry is good.
www.selby.gov.uk The information below is as at Oct 2012.
On their page called "Licence - house to house collections", there's a heading :
"List of Approved Collections within the Selby District 2012"
Beneath this is a link called "Approved Collections - doc".
This is a 4-page Word file - with a table of 5 columns. Below is an extract :
Date | Charity | Type of collection | Collection company (if different) | Area(s) where collection will take place |
---|---|---|---|---|
16 May to 31 December 2012 | Children’s Cancer & Leukaemia Fund (CALF) | House to House | Recycling & Management Services Ltd (R&MS Ltd) | Selby District |
Our comments :
Copy of the collections List (as at 6 Oct 2012): House_to_House_and_St_Coll_120823.doc
By the way, their introductory licensing page is innovative - they've helpfully split licences into categories, as follows :
See our page on Licensing regimes for a similar approach - including some more suggestions for categories (eg health/personal care).
There's a useful diary of house-to-house collections.
At Oct 2012, it's an Excel spreadsheet with 9 columns (A-I) and around 50 rows (collections). Unusually :
Spelling, punctuation and case are good quality.
Our suggestions :
At the bottom of this page, there's a link to an Excel spreadsheet file called:
"Street & House to House Collections Register - 11 June 2012 (22KB)"
This does indeed list house-to-house and street collections (14 and 21 entries respectively). However, we're confused as to how this relates to the register/diary described above which only deals with house-to-house collections (with 50 or so entries).
The web pages and diaries here are well-meaning - but they need a radical overhaul.
At Dec 2011, their website has a sophisticated database of all types of licence. It uses software from CAPS Solutions Ltd. CAPS was founded in 1989. It was acquired by Idox plc in 2007. Idox also produce Lalpac licensing software (see St Edmundsbury Council and Bury Council above).
There's a search form. This has a field called "Application Category". We were pleased to find that this field's values include "house-to-house collection licences" and "street collection permits".
Selecting "house-to-house collection licences" gives 23 applications.
They're in reverse date order (date received) - from now, back to Aug 2008 (a period of 3.5 years). However, it appears that the collection periods are all current/in the future (so it's just a diary of live licences - rather than a full register). There's a table of seven columns :
Application Ref. | Date Received | Business Name | Address | Licence Details | Status | Click to view |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
We suggest they add the type of collection (money or clothes).
One entry is for "Little Treasures Children's Trust" (of Romford, Essex) - which must mean it's a clothing collection.
Clicking on "Click to view" gives seven tabs with further details - eg their address. The "Agent details" tab has the name East London Textiles Ltd (and ELT's address).
Almost all the other 22 entries appear to be for cash.
Many/most are charities with National Exemption Orders. The "Additional details" tab confirms this (with a line stating "Home Office Exempt: YES"). So, these aren't licences - they're just notifications by the charities of their intention to collect.
Some relate to collections as far ahead as 2015 (ie 4 years' time).
We praise the council for adding house-to-house (and street) collections to their licensing database.
www.tandridge.gov.uk/environment/licences/
At Jan 2012, there are five web pages under the heading "Charity collections" :
2. The House to house collections page :
This has a very useful section headed "Unauthorised collections". Its introduction states :
"The following "Clothing Collections" are being made by organisations that do not have a current Permit or a Home Office Exemption to collect, or they are HOE but have not agreed their collection dates with the Council"
Below this is a bulleted [name-and-shame] list of 17 collectors/charities - including Intersecond Ltd, Hand of Help UK, Drops of Help Ltd, ANYA Ltd.
There are three surprising entries - namely British Heart Foundation, Clothes Aid/NSPCC and Cystic Fibrosis Trust. These charities have National Exemption Orders (HOEs/NEOs) - but they haven't notified the Council of their collections. The Council has told us that this is a frequent problem. (Note: It would help if the charities in this category where identified in the list - eg by adding "(NEO)" after each one.)
Lower on their page is a table headed "Applications received". This has four columns.
We give the headings below, with one example :
Date | Organisation | Area | Exempt |
---|---|---|---|
10-15 October 2011 | SOS Clothes | Whole district |
At Jan 2012, there are 27 entries in this table, covering the period Jan to Dec 2011.
Fourteen of the collections have an "HOE" in the "Exempt" column (=52%).
Below this is a table for 2012 (with three entries so far).
3. The House to House Collection Returns page has a table with six columns.
We give the headings below, with one example :
Date | Charity | Collecting organisation |
Home Office Exemption |
Total sum raised |
Expenses deducted from proceeds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10-15 October 2011 | Tree of Hope | SOS Clothes | £46.20 | £18.47 |
At Jan 2012, the table has 26 entries, covering the period Jan to Dec 2011.
Fourteen of the collections have a "Y" in the "Home Office Exemption" column (=54%).
Three of the collections are for direct debits.
We suggest they add the type of H2H collection (cash or clothes).
There are four clothing collections by SOS Clothes (for the Tree of Hope charity).
All (?) the other collections appear to be for cash.
We understand Tandridge pioneered the idea of adding this type of table to their website (summarising the accounts). It's lovely idea.
The two tables above ("Applications received" and "Collection returns") are excellent. However, it might be better if they were combined into one table (as some other councils have done). This would add only one column ("Area") to make seven columns (as three columns are the same). Combining them into one table would make it easier to maintain/update, eliminate inconsistencies and make it easier for users.
One minor point - it would help if they replaced the term "Home Office Exemption" (HOE) with (say) "National Exemption Order" (NEO) to reflect the change in 2006 to the Cabinet Office (and/or added a brief note of explanation about this). The Home Office now have no involvement in charity issues.
See Surrey Police arrest three over clothing collections BBC News item dated 19 Aug 2011. The police took action following a request from Tandridge Council.
For more on this, see our List of prosecutions of collectors page.
See also Runnymede Council's collection diary (above) which is based on Tandridge's design (and is also high-quality).
www.threerivers.gov.uk/Default.aspx/Web/Licensing1
There's a "Diary of licensed collections" - it's a 5-page Word file.
At 4th Dec 2011, it covers the calendar year 2011 (12 months).
There's no diary for 2012 there yet - so it looks only 4 weeks into the future.
It's a table - with four (unlabelled) columns: month / days / area / charity
- The first two pages are street collections.
- The last three pages are house-to-house collections (including clothing).
We suggest they add the type of collection (money vs clothing).
See file: "11-09-13 - House to House Collection Report Appendix C.pdf"
This comprises a file called "Appendix C.xls" - a table of 8 columns and 7 rows (collections).
This includes returns information - eg a column labelled "% Amount to charity".
This is the first time we've seen any council quoting the percentage. We're impressed.`
Collections are located as follows :
Home>Your Council>Charities and voluntary groups>Charities>House to house collections
www.warwickdc.gov.uk/.../Charities/House+to+house+collections.htm
At 23 Dec 2011, this page has links to two PDF files :
House to House collections in Warwick District for 2010 (PDF)
House to House collections in Warwick District for 2011 (PDF)
- both these files open in a new browser window
Each PDF file has 12 pages - one per month. There are two columns: date / charity
Entries take the form of: charity c/o commercial collector.
Example: Woodlands Cancer Care c/o Audosta
Most of the entries are presented well. However, there are some problems :
Collections with National Exemption Orders are marked as "(exempt)".
We suggest they add the type of collection (cash vs clothing etc).
The text on the web page states that exemptions are obtained from the Home Office.
However, the Cabinet Office took over responsibility for exemptions in 2006.
Warwick's page on street collections has three PDF files listing collection licences for 2011, 2012 and 2013.
"House to house collections: Collections diary"
At Dec 2011, it's a PDF file, with 12 pages (landscape format) - one per month.
It's literally a diary - with columns labelled: Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat/Sun - and a row per week.
Each entry gives up to five components :
type of collection / collector / charity / licence ref no / area
Example :
"House to House Collection - Little Treasures Childrens Trust - HTH0055 (All Borough)"
"List of Approved Collections / Fundraising within the Wigan Borough"
At Dec 2011, the List is a web page table.
Unusually, it gives the type of collection - which is very useful.
They do it using a column headed "Type of collection".
It's a good (above-average) diary.
Charities section: www.met.police.uk/charities/
The Metropolitan Police Service (=the MPS, =the Met) are responsible for licensing charitable collections in Greater London (excluding the City of London).
For details, see our Regulators page.
(Outside of London, local councils are responsible for the licensing of collections.)
At mid-2012, we're pleased to see that the Met's website includes :
Their "Licences issued" list is a web page with only three columns :
Charity / Borough / Collection dates [from/to]
Our suggestions :
Below - a bogus, unlicensed 'charitable' clothing collection leaflet