Law commission consultation reviewing the Friendly Societies Act 1974 and 1992

Overview

This is a public consultation by the Law Commission for England and Wales.

This project reviews the Friendly Societies Act 1974 (“1974 Act”) and the Friendly Societies Act 1992 (“1992 Act”). The 1974 Act remains in force until there are no longer any societies registered under it. Friendly societies registered under the 1974 Act are governed by that Act and the 1992 Act. By contrast, friendly societies registered and incorporated under the 1992 Act are governed solely by the 1992 Act. Any new friendly societies will fall within the scope of the 1992 Act alone. 

There are also other types of societies registered under the 1974 Act, such as benevolent societies, working men’s clubs, and specially authorised societies. Since no new societies can be registered under the 1974 Act, these types of societies generally register under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014.  

We have been asked to review the 1974 Act and the 1992 Act, to ensure that: 

• they fit the nature and needs of friendly societies; and  
• the regulation is proportionate and predictably certain.  

For more information about this project, click here.

We recommend that consultees read the consultation paper before responding to the consultation. A shorter summary is also available, alongside a fact sheet aimed at members of societies. All three documents can be accessed via the link above. Consultees do not need to answer all the questions in the consultation paper if they are only interested in some aspects of the consultation.

About the Law Commission: The Law Commission is a statutory body, created by the Law Commissions Act 1965 (“the 1965 Act”) for the purpose of promoting the reform of the law. It is an advisory Non Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The Law Commission is independent of Government. For more information about the Law Commission please click here.

Responses to this consultation: We aim to be transparent in our decision-making, and to explain the basis on which we have reached conclusions. We may publish or disclose information you provide in response to Law Commission papers, including personal information. For example, we may publish an extract of your response in Law Commission publications, or publish the response itself. We may also share responses with Government. Additionally, we may be required to disclose the information, such as in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We will process your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation.

Consultation responses are most effective where we are able to report which consultees responded to us, and what they said. If you consider that it is necessary for all or some of the information that you provide to be treated as confidential and so neither published nor disclosed, please contact us before sending it. Please limit the confidential material to the minimum, clearly identify it and explain why you want it to be confidential. We cannot guarantee that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances and an automatic disclaimer generated by your IT system will not be regarded as binding on the Law Commission.

Alternatively, you may want your response to be anonymous. That means that we may refer to what you say in your response, but will not reveal that the information came from you. You might want your response to be anonymous because it contains sensitive information about you or your family, or because you are worried about other people knowing what you have said to us.

We list who responded to our consultations in our reports. If you provide a confidential response your name will appear in that list. If your response is anonymous we will not include your name in the list unless you have given us permission to do so.

For information about how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy notice.

Any queries can be directed to enquiries@lawcommission.gov.uk.