Religious organisations as charities: charitable purpose or public subsidy for faith?

The debate in brief

The advancement of religion has been a recognised charitable purpose in English law since the Preamble to the Charitable Uses Act 1601, and it is explicitly listed in section 3(1)(c) of the Charities Act 2011. Religious organisations — churches, mosques, temples, synagogues, and their associated bodies — form one of the largest categories of registered charities in England and Wales. According to Charity Commission data, there are approximately 30,000 registered charities with religious purposes, holding combined assets of tens of billions of pounds. They benefit from the full range of charity tax reliefs: exemption from income and corporation tax, Gift Aid on donations, mandatory business rates relief, and exemption from capital gains tax. But the question of whether advancing religion inherently serves the public benefit — and whether it should continue to qualify as a charitable purpose at all — is one of the most contentious and least publicly debated issues in charity law.

Quick takeaways

The arguments

Religion serves the public benefit and deserves charitable status

The case for maintaining the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose rests on both historical and practical grounds. Historically, religious organisations were among the earliest providers of education, healthcare, and social welfare in England — predating the state in many of these functions. The charitable status of religious bodies is not an anomaly; it is foundational to the concept of charity itself.

Practically, religious organisations today provide enormous volumes of social service. The Church of England alone operates approximately 4,700 schools educating over a million children, according to the Church of England Education Office. Churches, mosques, gurdwaras, and other places of worship run food banks, night shelters, debt advice services, community centres, youth clubs, and bereavement support. The Cinnamon Network's audit of faith-based social action estimated that faith groups contribute over £3 billion worth of social welfare annually. Many of these services operate in areas of high deprivation where secular provision is thin or absent.

Beyond direct service provision, defenders of religious charitable status argue that spiritual welfare is itself a form of public benefit. The Charity Commission's guidance on the advancement of religion acknowledges that "the moral and spiritual welfare of the community" can constitute a benefit, even where it is difficult to quantify. Religious practice offers community, meaning, pastoral care, and a framework for navigating suffering and loss. For millions of people, this is not peripheral to their wellbeing; it is central to it. Removing charitable status from religious purposes would imply that spiritual welfare is not a legitimate public good — a position that many would regard as both illiberal and historically illiterate.

Advancing religion is not inherently a public benefit

The critical position does not necessarily deny that religious organisations do good work. It questions whether the advancement of religion itself — the promotion of religious belief and practice — constitutes a public benefit distinct from the social services that religious organisations happen to provide.

The National Secular Society has consistently argued that charitable status should be based on demonstrable public benefit, not on the advancement of faith as such. Holding a religious service, conducting worship, promoting theological education, and encouraging conversion are activities that benefit believers, but it is not self-evident that they benefit the public at large. The public benefit test, as applied to other charitable purposes, requires that the benefit be identifiable, available to a sufficient section of the public, and not outweighed by any detriment. Critics argue that this test is applied loosely — if at all — to religious purposes, creating a double standard.

The issue is sharpened by the line between service provision and proselytising. When a faith-based charity runs a food bank or a night shelter, the charitable benefit is clear. When the same organisation requires service users to attend prayers, participate in religious activities, or receive religious materials as a condition of access, the picture is more complicated. The Charity Commission's guidance states that religious charities must not make access to their charitable services conditional on participation in religious activities. But the boundary is not always clear in practice, and enforcement is limited.

Furthermore, some religious charities hold beliefs or operate practices that conflict with wider public policy on equality. Organisations that restrict leadership roles by gender, that teach that homosexuality is sinful, or that maintain exclusionary membership criteria may satisfy the technical requirements of charity law while operating in ways that many would consider contrary to public benefit. The Equality Act 2010 provides exemptions for religious organisations in certain areas, but the existence of those exemptions itself suggests a tension between religious charitable status and contemporary equality standards.

The real problem is the public benefit test, not religion

A third position argues that the debate about religious charitable status is a symptom of a deeper problem: the public benefit test is too vague to be meaningfully applied to any charitable purpose, and religious organisations simply make this most visible.

The Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit runs to over thirty pages and has been the subject of repeated legal challenges. The Upper Tribunal's 2011 decision in the Independent Schools Council case found that the Commission had erred in aspects of its public benefit guidance, and the Commission's subsequent approach has been cautious — arguably too cautious to resolve difficult cases. The Preston Down Trust case in 2012, where a Plymouth Brethren congregation was initially refused registration on the grounds that its exclusive membership practices failed the public benefit test, illustrated both the potential and the limits of regulatory enforcement. The Trust was eventually registered in 2014 after restructuring to allow public access to some of its activities.

If the public benefit test were applied rigorously and consistently across all charitable purposes, many of the concerns about religious charities would be addressed without requiring a change to the list of charitable purposes. The problem is not that advancing religion is listed as a purpose; it is that the regulatory mechanism for testing whether any given organisation actually delivers public benefit is too weak to do its job.

The evidence

Charity Commission register data shows approximately 30,000 charities in England and Wales with religious purposes. These include places of worship, religious education bodies, missionary organisations, faith-based social service providers, and umbrella bodies. The Church Commissioners for England alone held assets of £10.4 billion in 2023, according to their annual report. The Catholic Church in England and Wales, the Methodist Church, and other denominations hold further substantial assets. The aggregate value of tax reliefs flowing to religious charities is not published separately, but given the scale of their income and assets, it is likely to run to hundreds of millions of pounds annually.

The Cinnamon Network's Faith Action Audit, published in 2016 and updated subsequently, estimated that faith-based social action in the UK was worth over £3 billion per year, with churches providing an average of three social action projects each. The research was based on surveys of faith leaders and is sometimes cited by defenders of religious charitable status as evidence of the sector's public benefit contribution. Critics note that much of this activity would qualify as charitable regardless of whether the advancement of religion itself is a charitable purpose — running a food bank is charitable under the relief of poverty, regardless of who runs it.

The National Secular Society's analysis of Charity Commission data has found that a significant proportion of religious charities exist primarily for worship and religious education rather than for broader social service. The NSS has argued that these organisations benefit their members rather than the public, drawing a parallel with private members' clubs that would not qualify for charitable status.

The Charity Commission's own decisions provide limited case law. Beyond the Preston Down Trust, the Commission has not systematically tested the public benefit of religious purposes across the diversity of registered religious charities. A 2013 Charity Commission research report acknowledged that its approach to public benefit in the context of the advancement of religion remained underdeveloped.

Current context

The legal framework is stable but the cultural context is shifting. Census data from 2021 showed that for the first time, fewer than half of the population of England and Wales described themselves as Christian (46.2%), while 37.2% reported no religion. The long-term trend toward secularisation raises questions about how long the advancement of religion will maintain its privileged position in charity law, particularly as the population with a direct stake in religious charitable status declines.

The Charity Commission has not signalled any intention to revisit its approach to religious charities or to the public benefit test as applied to religious purposes. The Commission's regulatory priorities focus on governance, safeguarding, and financial management rather than on re-examining the fundamental questions of charitable purpose.

The Law Commission's 2017 technical issues paper on charity law reform touched on the public benefit test but did not recommend changes to the list of charitable purposes. The political sensitivity of any proposal to remove or restrict religious charitable status makes legislative reform unlikely in the near term. Religious organisations are well-represented in Parliament — the Church of England has up to 26 bishops (the Lords Spiritual) in the House of Lords — and any government proposing to restrict their tax reliefs would face significant opposition.

Meanwhile, controversies continue to surface. Safeguarding failures in religious organisations, financial opacity in some faith-based charities, and concerns about conversion therapy delivered through charitable structures all maintain pressure on the regulatory framework. The Charity Commission's ability to act decisively in these cases — while respecting the legal status of religious charitable purposes — remains a live question.

Last updated: April 2026

What this means for charities

The debate about religious charitable status affects all charities, not just religious ones. If the public benefit test is not applied rigorously to religious charities, it undermines the legitimacy of the test for everyone. If it is applied aggressively, it sets precedents that could affect charities across all purposes.

First, religious charities should be prepared to articulate their public benefit clearly. Organisations whose activities are primarily focused on worship and religious education for existing members should be able to explain how those activities benefit the wider public, not just the congregation. The Charity Commission's guidance on the advancement of religion provides a framework, but charities should not assume that registration itself constitutes proof of public benefit.

Second, faith-based charities providing social services should maintain clear boundaries between service delivery and religious activity. The Charity Commission's guidance states that access to charitable services must not be conditional on participation in religious activities. Charities should audit their practices to ensure this boundary is maintained in reality, not just in policy documents.

Third, all charities should engage with the broader public benefit debate. The question of what counts as public benefit, how it should be tested, and who should decide are relevant across every charitable purpose. A weak public benefit test undermines public confidence in the entire sector, regardless of the specific purposes involved.

Common questions

Can a church be a charity?

Yes. A church — or any place of worship — can be registered as a charity if it is established for exclusively charitable purposes, which include the advancement of religion. Most churches in England and Wales are either registered charities or are excepted from registration (as is the case for many Church of England parish churches, which are supervised by the Church Commissioners rather than registered individually with the Charity Commission).

Do religious charities pay tax?

Religious charities receive the same tax reliefs as all charities: exemption from income and corporation tax on charitable income, Gift Aid on donations, mandatory 80% business rates relief on premises used for charitable purposes, and exemptions from capital gains tax and stamp duty land tax on certain transactions. They do not receive any additional or special tax reliefs by virtue of being religious.

What is the public benefit test for religious charities?

The Charities Act 2006 removed the presumption of public benefit that had previously applied to the advancement of religion (among other purposes). All charities must now demonstrate that their purposes are for the public benefit. The Charity Commission's guidance states that religious charities must show that their activities benefit the public or a sufficient section of it, that any private benefit to members is incidental, and that any detriment does not outweigh the benefit. In practice, the test has been applied cautiously and few religious charities have been challenged.

Could advancing religion be removed as a charitable purpose?

In theory, yes — through primary legislation amending the Charities Act 2011. In practice, it is politically extremely unlikely. Religious organisations have significant institutional representation, including Church of England bishops in the House of Lords, and broad public support for their social welfare activities. Any government proposing to remove the advancement of religion from the list of charitable purposes would face substantial opposition and would need to address the consequences for tens of thousands of organisations.

Is proselytising charitable?

The Charity Commission's guidance distinguishes between advancing religion — which can include spreading religious belief — and proselytising in ways that cause detriment. Seeking to persuade others of the merits of a faith is permitted. Using coercion, targeting vulnerable people inappropriately, or making charitable services conditional on religious participation is not. The boundary is not always clear in practice, and enforcement depends on complaints and regulatory investigation.

How does the Equality Act interact with religious charitable status?

The Equality Act 2010 provides specific exemptions for religious organisations, including exceptions related to employment, the provision of services, and premises. These exemptions allow religious charities to restrict certain roles by gender or to operate according to doctrinal positions that would otherwise conflict with equality law. The existence of these exemptions means that religious charities can lawfully operate in ways that other charities cannot — a distinction that some regard as appropriate respect for religious freedom and others view as an unjustified privilege.

Key sources and further reading

• Charities Act 2011, Section 3 — UK Parliament. The statutory list of charitable purposes, including the advancement of religion at section 3(1)(c).

• Charity Commission: The Advancement of Religion for the Public Benefit — Charity Commission. Guidance on how the public benefit test applies to charities established for the advancement of religion.

• Charity Commission: Public Benefit — the Public Benefit Requirement (PB1) — Charity Commission. The overarching guidance on the public benefit test as applied to all charitable purposes.

• National Secular Society: Religious Charities — NSS. Analysis and policy positions on the charitable status of religious organisations, including data on the scale and nature of religious charities. secularism.org.uk

• Cinnamon Network: Faith Action Audit — Cinnamon Network, 2016. Research estimating the scale and value of faith-based social action in the UK.

• Preston Down Trust: Charity Commission and Tribunal Decisions — Charity Commission / Upper Tribunal, 2012-2014. The case concerning registration of a Plymouth Brethren congregation, testing the application of the public benefit test to an exclusive religious group.

• Census 2021: Religion in England and Wales — Office for National Statistics, 2022. Data on religious affiliation in England and Wales, showing the long-term trend toward secularisation.

• Church Commissioners Annual Report — Church Commissioners for England, published annually. Financial data on the Church of England's central assets and investment portfolio.

• Law Commission: Technical Issues in Charity Law — Law Commission, 2017. A review of technical issues in charity law, including discussion of the public benefit test and charitable purposes.