Commentary on Sections Section 2: Status of charitable societies to appear on correspondence etc
15.Section 2 inserts a new section 5A into the 1965 Act, requiring industrial and provident societies which are also charities to declare their charitable status on all correspondence and other official documents. Section 3 of the present Act relates to transactions performed outside the rules of the society. For those wishing to do business with societies it is important to know whether or not the society concerned is a charity. This could affect the validity of any transaction where there is the possibility that it might be outside the rules of the society. The new section 5A addresses this issue by requiring a society which is a charity, but whose name does not include either “charity” or “charitable”, to state that it is a charity, in correspondence and other specified documents. (Section 5A broadly corresponds to sections 68 and 96(1) of the Charities Act 1993 in relation to England and Wales, to section 112(1)(b) and (6) to (8) of the Companies Act 1989 in relation to Scotland and to section 349(3) and (4) of the Companies Act 1985).