Public charitable collections that are carried house-to-house are controlled by the House to House Collections Act 1939 and the House to House Collections Regulations 1947, which established a central licensing regime for such collections. As with the Police, Factories etc (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1916, which regulates street collections, licences were issued by the police until until the Local Government Act 1972 transferred the licensing role to councils (except in London, where licences are still issued by the police).
Unlike 1916, the 1939 Act specifically states (s11) that a licence is required in order to stage a collection for “money or other property” so there is no ambiguity about whether Direct Debits are covered.
However, again unlike the current street collection licensing regime, charities can apply for a national exemption order, which allows them to fundraise without the need to obtain a licence, though they do have to notify a council when they are going to fundraise.
The Office of the Third Sector’s website held a list of the 43 charities – many of which are PFRA members – that currently hold national exemption orders. However, this page has not yet been uploaded to the website of Office for Civil Society, the department that succeeded the OTS following the 2010 general election.
The Charities Act 2006 will remove the requirement for house-to-house collections (both cash and Direct Debit) to be covered by a local authority licence.