Cy-Pres

Section 62 of the Charities Act 2011 sets out the circumstances in which the original purposes of a charitable gift can be altered to allow the property given or part of it to be applied cy-près. These include where the original purposes, in whole or in part have been fulfilled or cannot be carried out, or, more broadly, cannot be carried out, or not according to the directions given and to the spirit of the gift. The section also covers cases where the original purposes provided for only part of the available property, where the property could be more effectively used alongside other property for similar purposes, or where the area or class of persons originally specified has ceased to be suitable.

In deciding how to redirect the property, section 62(2) requires the court or Charity Commission to have regard to the "appropriate considerations": on the one hand the spirit of the gift concerned, and on the other the social and economic circumstances prevailing at the time of the proposed alteration of the original purposes. This dual focus means a cy-près scheme must stay faithful to what the original donor was trying to achieve while remaining workable given how circumstances have since changed.