Licence - house to house collections
Summary
If you intend to visit a number of houses or other premises in the course of a charitable collection, you are
required to obtain a House to House Collection Licence under the House to House Collections Act 1939, House to House Collections
Regulations 1947 (as amended).
Door to door collections for cash and/or goods, including envelope collections and those from pub to pub need to be licensed.
How to apply for a house to house collections licence
- choose a date, time and location for your collection;
- contact a member of the Licensing Section to provisionally book in the date of the collection;
- fill in the application form provided below;
- send the application form to the Licensing Section (no fee applies) at least one calendar month prior to the first date of the collection;
- if a licence is granted, a form of statement must be returned to the Licensing Section within a month of the collection date.
Downloads
- House to House collection form of statement (return) (PDF, 15KB)
- House to House collection regulations – brief guide (PDF, 13KB)
Printable forms
Further information
Applications for a licence should be submitted with sufficient notice prior to the date on which the collection is due to take place. The Licensing Section will be able to advise a collector as to what other collections are taking place in the District so that clashes of dates/times can be reduced.
A number of larger (mainly national) charities have permission from the Home Office to collect and are exempt from requiring a licence from the Local Authority.
In addition, non charitable collections (i.e. those for profit/private gain) are not required to hold licences under the current legislation.
Once a licence is issued it will be necessary for the collector to obtain collector badges from the Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. A certificate for information will be issued with the licence so that the collector can obtain the correct amount of badges. We therefore recommend that collectors apply for a licence at least one calendar month prior to the date of the collection so that enough time is available to apply for these badges.
Non-charitable collections
Although non-charitable collections are not an unlawful practice, some collection leaflets may give the impression that the proceeds of a collection are in some way to be used for charitable purposes. The leaflets may imply that you would be giving your unwanted clothes or other items as a gift and therefore not donating them to charity.
Not all door to door collections are fraudulent and many genuine charities operate in this way and either hold a licence or have Home Office exemption.
Here are some tips when donating your unwanted items:
- the full name, address and registration number of the charity collecting should be available to you (a commercial company may collect on behalf of a charity but they should state which charity they represent).
- the Charity Commission will be able to help you if you consider an organisation may not be a registered charity visit there website or contact them on 0845 3000 218).
- you can contact the Licensing Section to ascertain whether a licence has been issued to a collector for that day/area.
- contact the Trading Standards Service via their website or call 08454 04 05 06 to report any misleading claims.
- contact Leicestershire Constabulary on 0116 222 2222 if you wish to report any suspicious behaviour as there may be a link between doorstep selling/collecting and distraction burglaries.
Alternatively, you may wish to donate unwanted items direct to a charity shop or use a charity shop collection sack.
External websites
Contact us
| Officer / Team | Licensing Section |
|---|---|
| Postal address | Blaby District Council Council Offices Desford Road Narborough Leicester LE19 2EP |
| E-mail address | licensing@blaby.gov.uk |
| Telephone | 0116 272 7783 |
| Fax | 0116 272 7596 |
If you need this information in other languages or formats (large print, Braille or audio), please let us know when you contact us.
This page was last updated on 24th June 2009
How do you rate this information / service?