page_title: Charitable trusts in English law
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Charitable trusts in English law / Charitable purpose / Education
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Quintin Hogg Lord Hailsham
context_page_description: Charitable trusts in English law are a form of express trust dedicated to charitable goals. There are a variety of advantages to charitable trust status, including exception from most forms of tax and freedom for the trustees not found in other types of English trust. To be a valid charitable trust, the organisation must demonstrate both a charitable purpose and a public benefit. Applicable charitable purposes are normally divided into categories for public benefit including the relief of poverty, the promotion of education, the advancement of health and saving of lives, promotion of religion and all other types of trust recognised by the law. There is also a requirement that the trust's purposes benefit the public, and not simply a group of private individuals.
  Such trusts will be invalid in several circumstances; charitable trusts are not allowed to be run for profit, nor can they have purposes that are not charitable. In addition, it is considered unacceptable for charitable trusts to campaign for political or legal change, although discussing political issues in a neutral manner is acceptable.
context_section_description: As with poverty, this category is also found in the 1601 Act's preamble, which refers to charities established for the "Maintenance of... Schools of Learning, Free Schools, and Scholars at Universities". The common law, over the years, has recognised a wide area covered by "education". This includes the education of the young, a particularly wide category, described by Lord Hailsham in IRC v McMullen, as "a balanced and systematic process of instruction, training and practice containing both spiritual, moral, mental and physical elements". Although wide, this excludes things that the courts feel are harmful; in Re Shaw, Harman J excluded schools for pickpockets or prostitutes. "Education" also includes research, as long as the subject is useful and the gift makes some requirement that the information be made available to others and disseminated. In Re Hopkins, a gift was given to the Francis Bacon society to find proof that William Shakespeare's plays were written by Bacon. Wilberforce J held that it was a valid gift, as "the discovery would be of the highest value to history and to literature". He also gave the definition of research required for a gift to be valid: 
  The word education must be used in a wide sense, certainly extending beyond teaching, and the requirement is that, in order to be charitable, research must either be of educational value to the researcher or must be so directed as to lead to something which will pass into the store of educational material, or so as to improve the sum of communicable knowledge in an area which education must cover - education in this last context extending to the formation of literary taste and appreciation.
  
  This definition was expanded on by Slade J in McGovern v Attorney General, where he said that: 
  (1) A trust for research will ordinarily qualify as a charitable trust if, but only if (a) the subject matter of the proposed research is a useful object of study; and (b) if it is contemplated that the knowledge acquired as a result of the research will be disseminated to others; and (c) the trust is for the benefit of the public, or a sufficiently important section of the public. 
   (2) In the absence of such a contrary context, however, the court will be readily inclined to construe a trust for research as importing subsequent dissemination of the results thereof. Furthermore, if a trust for research is to constitute a valid trust for the advancement of education, it is no necessary either (a) that the teacher/pupil relationship should be in contemplation, or (b) that the persons to benefit from the knowledge to be acquired should be persons who are already in the course of receiving an education in the conventional sense.
  For artistic pursuits, it is not enough to promote such things generally, as it is too vague. A body for specific artistic purposes may be charitable, as in Royal Choral Society v IRC, as is the promotion of a particular composer, seen in Re Delius. For a gift to be charitable, the courts must be convinced that the subject of advancement be of artistic merit. This includes famous composers, as seen above, and social graces, as in Re Shaw's Wills Trust. When there is doubt, the courts ignore the opinions of the beneficiary and instead rely on experts, as in Re Pinion. This area is covered by the Charities Act 2006, which lists "the advancement of citizenship or community development" and "the advancement of the arts, culture, heritage or science" as valid types of charitable trust.
caption: Lord Hailsham, who set out the extent of "education" of the young used in charitable trust cases in IRC v McMullen.
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