Part 1: Purposes, Powers and Governing Documents Section 4: Power to amend Royal Charter
Section 4 inserts a new section 280C into the CA 2011, which provides charities established or regulated by Royal Charter with a new statutory power to amend any provision in their Royal Charter. 4 The power will assist Royal Charter charities that do not currently have an express power to make the amendment sought and which must therefore petition, and pay, for a supplemental Charter if they wish to amend the Charter. Many Royal Charters contain an express power of amendment, which is tailored to the charity. If a proposed amendment could be made under an existing express power in the Charter, that procedure must be followed, and the power in section 280C is not available: section 280C(2)(b).
	The power is exercisable by resolution and subject to the approval of Her Majesty by Order in Council. Subsection (4) describes the process for passing a resolution in the case of a charity that has a membership body which has a decision-making role under the Charter. This process is similar to that for unincorporated charities with a membership body that must pass a resolution under the new section 280A: see paragraph 48 above.
	To avoid the potentially wasted costs of putting a proposed amendment to a vote by the charity’s membership, only for the amendment to be refused, charities should speak to the Privy Council Office at an early stage of the process. That will enable potential problems to be resolved, and the Privy Council Office to indicate approval in principle to the proposed amendment, before the resolution is put to a vote by the charity’s membership.
	Unlike amending a Royal Charter under section 68 of the CA 2011, the new power under section 280C will not require a Charity Commission scheme. Once the resolution has been approved by Order in Council, the resolution itself will serve to modify the Royal Charter.
	Schedule 2, paragraph 45 amends the description of Royal Charter charities in section 292B(4)(b) to reflect the definition used in section 68 of the CA 2011 and in the new section 280C.