Street collection permits

The main Act of Parliament covering the licensing of street collections is the Police. Factories etc (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1916. Model regulations contained in the Charitable Collections (Transitional Provisions) Order 1974 have been adopted by the Council. These regulations are shown in this leaflet and provide for the legal control and supervision of licensed collections.
We wish to grant as many permits as possible to help charitable or other purposes and will do so provided we are satisfied that:

1. You will collect money or sell articles for the benefit of charitable or other purposes in any street or public place in Portsmouth. Street includes “any highway and public bridge, road, lane, footway, square, court, alley or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not”. Collections however in places where there is no public right of access do not require our permission, although the Charities Act 1992 (when it comes into force) will introduce a licensing code for certain private places. For Clarification purposes a street collection permit in Portsmouth would not be required for a collection held:
2. Inside a shop or shopping mall (you will need the permission of the owner inside a pub or club (if going from one pub to another you will need a House to House Collection Licence)inside a cinema or theatre
3. in a private dwelling house
4. in a works or business premises.
5. A permit is also not required (even if collecting in a public place) for:
6. a meeting in the open air
7. the selling of articles in any street or public place when the articles are sold in the ordinary course of trade and for the purposes of earning a livelihood.

WARNING

If selling in the course of trade you must not make any representation whatsoever that any part of the proceeds of sale will be devoted to any charitable purpose.

Selling is only permitted in a street if you hold a Street Trading Consent issued by the Portsmouth City Council.

You have been honest in supplying information to us and must not, under any circumstances, make a false statement at any time to obtain your permit. This is a serious offence.

In Portsmouth you are not permitted to collect on the seafront promenade or beach areas

To help us consider your application we would like you to show us:

1. That you have submitted your application at least one month before the proposed collecting date(s) specified in your application.
2. That you have completed the application form fully in every respect.

WARNING

Failure to complete the application form will result in us not being able to consider your application immediately or delaying consideration until you have provided any outstanding information. It is very important the charity/organisation benefiting from the collection endorses the application properly in the box provided. We reserve the right to make more detailed enquiries about your application in certain circumstances. This could include requesting that the applicants or any other person connected with the organisation submitting police checks at our request.

We will determine your application as quickly as possible. We will tell you if the dates you have requested have already been allocated to another organisation. We allow collections 7 days a week but do not, as a matter of local policy, permit multiple collections on the same day in the same area of the City. We will always offer, where possible, an alternative date for your collection.
On receiving your permit it is important for you to consider the following:

• That you have retained and understood the regulations controlling your collection.
• That you have provided written authority for your collectors to take part in the collection.
• That your collectors are over 16 years of age.
• That you make arrangements for the return of the statement of income showing details of monies raised to be countersigned by an accountant or other independent responsible person.

WARNING

The statement of income must be returned to us within one month of the collecting date. Failure to do so is an offence and may also result in any future application being refused by the Council.

If, for any reason, we cannot support your application, the Licensing Committee will be asked to consider and determine the matter. As the law currently stands, there is no general right of appeal against the council’s decision to either the Magistrates or Crown Courts.

THIS IS AN INFORMATION PAGE AND NOT A STATEMENT OF LAW OR HOW WE WILL DEAL WITH EACH INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION.