Charity Giving

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the finding in the Charities Aid Foundation’s UK Giving Report 2026, published in March, that the total amount donated to charity by the British public has fallen for the first time in five years; and whether they have any plans to promote a renewed culture of giving in the UK.

This Government are proud of our incredible culture of giving in the UK and are committed to doing what we can to promote and foster it. While the CAF research shows a fall in overall donations, charitable giving has broadly kept up with inflation over the last decade and the proportion of those who give is the same as the previous year. Published last week, the Government’s plan for growing place-based philanthropy, Our Place to Give, will create stronger enabling conditions to strengthen links between donors and places, build better partnerships, and unlock further philanthropy and giving.

I thank my noble friend for that response. The road map that she mentions is indeed an excellent and most welcome initiative to boost place-based philanthropy, and it is much appreciated by the voluntary and community sector. However, the fall in the amount donated is of great concern to charities, which are under increasing pressure to meet growing demands while their incomes are falling. Will His Majesty’s Government consider introducing policies that promote giving, both from corporates and individuals? Examples might be simplifying gift aid, encouraging payroll giving, or indeed anything that might renew the culture of giving, which, as my noble friend said, has always been so central to life in the United Kingdom.

It is important that we focus on how we can support an already incredibly generous public, without playing down the reasons why people might be reluctant to give. We are putting in place measures to tackle the cost of living issues affecting people currently. As for some of the ways that my noble friend mentions, HMRC is providing over £2.5 billion of relief through gift aid and higher rate relief, and reviewing current gift aid claiming processes to try to help charities gain as much as they can through that route. I know my noble friend is interested in payroll giving, which 4,000 UK businesses offer. We are actively supporting ways to encourage more people to give. We will continue to work with the sector to ensure that we maximise funding through personal, public and corporate giving.

My Lords, according to the Charities Aid Foundation report, nearly one in three non-donors indicated that they were not engaged with or interested in charities, with an even higher figure for young people. Initiatives such as the Family Volunteering Club show how young people can engage in building relationships with charities through volunteering. Does the Minister agree that more needs to be done, particularly in our schools, to encourage and support a culture of engagement with charities among young people?

The first time I was asked to volunteer was through school, so I know that the noble Baroness makes a valuable point. Volunteers are critical to civil society. We are committed to enabling more people to get involved in working with the voluntary sector and to modernising volunteering through the civil society covenant, which will promote flexible working for modern work-life commitments. The noble Baroness focused on children and young people, and I thought the CAF report made an interesting point. Through our youth strategy, which intersects with this and, helpfully, is led by the same Minister, we are looking at ways to get more young people involved.

My Lords, I am sure the Minister will recognise the role of trustees, not just in helping to raise funds but in undertaking the statutory and regulatory functions within charities—all unpaid and in the spirit of public service. An NCVO report found that 85% of charities are struggling to recruit high-quality trustees. Can the Minister say what the Government can do to support charities in recruiting, training and retaining high-quality trustees? Will she join me in acknowledging the important role of trustees in running charities? I declare an interest as, like many of us, I am a trustee of charities.

Unfortunately, when those of us on the Front Bench took up our roles, we had to give up our trustee roles. I know that noble Lords across the House are committed to working directly with charities and giving their expertise. One of the first things that the Government committed to was the civil society covenant. The civil society council, to be chaired by the NCVO’s chief executive, will meet quarterly in Downing Street to drive forward the covenant’s implementation. I have no doubt that this will be one of the big issues it discusses, but, like everyone in your Lordships’ House, I encourage more people to get involved where they can.

My Lords, to turn to the micro level of this, we do not carry change in our pockets now so many charity collections are not going to work. What are the Government doing to make sure people can feel confident about using a card to make payments and making sure with the banks that we are secure when we give spontaneously?

A huge number of charities now use card readers, and it is shifting quite rapidly. The noble Lord is correct that a lot of people would not necessarily have change. I am not clear, but I will go back and check whether the department has seen a corelation between people not carrying cash and the reported fall in personal donations. It is an interesting point and one made well.

My Lords, I particularly welcome the Minister’s earlier response referring to place-based donations. Many local charities are quite small, and small charities are the most vulnerable. Can the Minister give us more of an indication as to how small charities can be supported? They are the ones which are most in touch with their local communities and most likely to go to the wall if donations are falling.

There are two things to say in relation to smaller charities. Some of the measures put in place last year mean that smaller organisations pay less employer contributions. That was done to support smaller organisations. I am happy to arrange a briefing for the right reverend Prelate on the place-based approach to philanthropy, which is around making sure that you can leverage large amounts of money. It is entirely intended to make sure that smaller organisations, as well as larger ones, can benefit from the huge generosity and opportunities that philanthropy offers.

My Lords, as the report makes clear, this is the first reduction in giving for five years. If the British public were still giving at the level they were a decade ago, another £12.5 billion would be available to charities across the country. The Minister is right that the British people are a generous lot. However, does she agree that part of the problem is that they balk at paying the extra tax bills that charities are facing through additional employment costs and national insurance contributions? For the National Trust alone, this costs £10 million per year.

The noble Lord will be entirely aware of the difficult decisions this Government had to make on winning the election in 2024. My noble friend Lord Livermore is not here, but I think he would probably refer that back to the Benches opposite. If the noble Lord has not read the report—it is a really interesting read—that was not one of the specific things I recall coming up in it. We would prefer to look at it in a much more positive way and to make the case for people giving. We will continue to do that as a government.

My Lords, the new Queen Elizabeth Trust has been established to regenerate shared community spaces, reflecting Her late Majesty’s commitment to public service. These spaces could be of enormous benefit to young people, who, according to the Charities Aid Foundation, have the lowest level of charitable engagement of any age group at the moment. Do the Government have any plans to promote youth volunteering, particularly as a means of skills development? If so, does my noble friend the Minister agree that organisations such as the Queen Elizabeth Trust, as well as the King’s Trust, could help mobilise that youth involvement?

Like other noble Lords and my noble friend, I was very pleased to see the announcement of the launch of the Queen Elizabeth Trust over the weekend. Her late Majesty, whose 100th birthday it would have been tomorrow, was exceptional at bringing people together. In response to my noble friend’s question around youth engagement and social action, we recognise that participation in youth social action, including volunteering, builds young people’s skills and increases their confidence. We are supporting the #iwill movement, which aims to increase the scale, sustainability and impact of youth social action and volunteering. I have already referenced the national youth strategy, and this is part of what we are trying to encourage through that.