# The Charities (Northern Ireland) Order 2007, Article 4: Meaning of “charitable purpose”


(1) For the purposes of the law of Northern Ireland, a charitable purpose is a purpose which—
(a) falls within paragraph (2), and
(b) is for the public benefit (see Article 5).
(2) A purpose falls within this paragraph if it falls within any of the following descriptions of purposes—
(a) the prevention or relief of poverty;
(b) the advancement of education;
(c) the advancement of religion;
(d) the advancement of health or the saving of lives;
(e) the advancement of citizenship or community development;
(f) the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science;
(g) the advancement of amateur sport;
(h) the advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity;
(i) the advancement of environmental protection or improvement;
(j) the relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage;
(k) the advancement of animal welfare;
(l) any other purposes within paragraph (4).
(3) In paragraph (2)—
(a) in sub-paragraph (c) “religion” includes—
(i) a religion which involves belief in more than one god, and
(ii) a religion which does not involve belief in a god;
(b) in sub-paragraph (d) “the advancement of health” includes the prevention or relief of sickness, disease or human suffering;
(c) sub-paragraph (e) includes—
(i) rural or urban regeneration, and
(ii) the promotion of civic responsibility, volunteering, the voluntary sector or the effectiveness or efficiency of charities;
(d) in sub-paragraph (g) “sport” means sports or games which promote health by involving physical or mental skill or exertion;
(e) sub-paragraph (h) includes the advancement of peace and good community relations; and
(f) sub-paragraph (j) includes relief given by the provision of accommodation or care to the persons mentioned in that sub-paragraph.
(4) The purposes within this paragraph (see paragraph (2)(l)) are—
(a) any purposes not within sub-paragraphs (a) to (k) of paragraph (2) but recognised as charitable purposes under existing charity law or by virtue of section 1 of the Recreational Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 1958 (c. 16);
(b) any purposes that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to, or within the spirit of, any purposes falling within any of those sub-paragraphs or sub-paragraph (a) above; and
(c) any purposes that may reasonably be regarded as analogous to, or within the spirit of, any purposes which have been recognised under charity law as falling within sub-paragraph (b) above or this sub-paragraph.
(5) Where any of the terms used in any of sub-paragraphs (a) to (k) of paragraph (2), or in paragraph (3), has a particular meaning under charity law, the term is to be taken as having the same meaning where it appears in that provision.
(6) Any reference in any statutory provision or document (in whatever terms)—
(a) to charitable purposes, or
(b) to institutions having purposes that are charitable under charity law,
is to be construed in accordance with paragraph (1).
(7) Paragraph (6)—
(a) applies whether the statutory provision or document was passed or made before or after the making of this Order, but
(b) does not apply where the context otherwise requires.
(8) In this Article—
“charity law” means the law relating to charities in Northern Ireland; and
“existing charity law” means charity law as in operation immediately before the day on which this Article comes into operation.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2007/9780110800677/article/4 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-charities-northern-ireland-order-2007/article-4
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.