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Who Can Be a Trustee?

Who Can Be a Trustee?

All charities must be governed by charity trustees. Before deciding whether a prospective trustee will be appointed, a charity will need to be aware of their status in order to determine whether they are eligible to be appointed. 

In order to be appointed as a trustee, a person must not be disqualified from being a trustee under the Charities Acts. 

They must also be a “fit and proper person”; the meaning of this expression is explained in the Guidance Note: Fit and Proper Persons (Trustee and Managers) 

Further, they must have passed a DBS check.

Where the prospective trustee is under 18, is a vulnerable adult, is elderly, is an ex-offender, is from outside the UK, is an asylum seeker or refugee or when they would be doing work that is or has been carried out by any employee of the charity, the charity will need to check whether it is actually possible to appoint the individual as a trustee or whether some limitation might apply in relation to engaging them.

As to trustees in receipt of state benefits, see the Government’s guidance Volunteering and claiming benefits but note that there are no limitations on someone working as a volunteer if they are in receipt of either a state retirement pension or certain other pension benefits.

Where an individual wishes to give their time as a trustee of a charity but to do so they would need time off from paid work with another organisation, their employer might decide to grant their request to have time off for their trustee duties.  An employer is not obliged to grant such a request since an employee has no statutory right to take off time from a job in order to carry out activities as a charity trustee.

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