The Charity Commission has concluded a review of its approach to assessing the charitable status of organisations which use or promote complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies.
The review included an extensive public consultation, to which it received around 670 individual responses. The review concluded that the underlying legal principles around charitable status and the promotion of CAM remain unchanged. However, as a result of the review, it has updated its approach to assessing the charitable status of CAM organisations.
The guidance now says that CAM organisations applying to register as charities will need to provide evidence that matches the claims that they make in order to demonstrate that they provide public benefit:
- those organisations that claim to treat or cure a disease or condition will need to provide appropriate scientific evidence.
- those organisations that instead claim to provide comfort and relief to patients, may be able to rely on other types of evidence, such as reports by patients, or observational studies based on patient responses, to demonstrate their public benefit.
For more details visit the Charity Commission website https://www.gov.uk/government/news/updated-approach-to-assessing-applications-from-organisations-promoting-complementary-and-alternative-therapies
