PETITIONOpenPetition · petition.parliament.uk
Make it a criminal offence to collect street donations if not a charity
We are concerned about bogus charity collections on our streets. Some operations that claim to be charitable are run as a "for profit" business with very little of their collections used to help anyone.
Last fetched 03 May 2026 · petition.parliament.uk
Signatures
900
signatures
Government response threshold (10,000) · 900/10,000
Debate threshold (100,000) · 900/100,000
Background
We want you to make it a criminal offence with a mandatory prison term to collect money on the street, except for collections by registered charities. We think current fines for unlicensed street collections and street trading are small and can be easily recovered by scammers. The punishment needs to act as a deterrent.