Law Commission Review of Co-operative and Community Benefit Society Law: Sistren’s Proposed Community-Led Response
What’s happening?
The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 (CCBS Act) is a piece of UK legislation that provides the legal framework for the registration, operation, and governance of co-operative societies and community benefit societies.
The Law Commission was created by the Law Commissions Act 1965, with a duty to keep the law under review and propose reform where needed. It is the official law reform body for England and Wales.
The Law Commission has been asked by the Treasury to review the CCBS Act.
The Law Commission has published a consultation paper, in which they discuss the current law and make provisional proposals for reform. The Law Commission has asked consultees for their views and have encouraged everyone interested to respond to their consultation.
Sistren Legal Collective is convening a community-led response to the Law Commission’s consultation on the review of the CCBS Act, focussing on obtaining input from co-ops and community benefit societies that are led by and for minoritised communities who, for historic and systemic reasons, often do not have a voice in influencing legislative change.
You can read the Law Commission’s Review of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 document here, as well as a shorter Summary of the Consultation Paper here.
The Law Commission’s consultation period is open until Tuesday 10 December 2024.
Background
Sistren Legal Collective is a community of lawyers working at the intersection of law, grassroots organising and movement-building. We use our knowledge of the law as a tool to support the work of leaders, activists, changemakers and organisations centering social and racial justice. Through our work, we seek to promote decolonial and anti-capitalist frameworks that center the voices and experiences of those most impacted by injustice.
We propose to contribute to the Law Commission’s review of co-operatives and community benefit societies because these legal structures play a significant role in enabling organisations to advance anti-capitalist and decolonial approaches to social justice in the UK.
As legal frameworks that emphasise shared values and social justice principles, such as the distributed ownership of wealth, democratic governance, community needs and collective benefit, cooperatives and community benefit societies provide alternatives to traditional capitalist models. They create avenues for often marginalised communities to collectively control resources, self-govern democratically, and distribute power in equitable ways. In this context, their role in facilitating transformative social change, including advancing social and racial justice, is crucial.
By contributing to the review, we can share our views on the impact of the proposed changes to the Act on societies advocating for social and racial justice and hopefully influence the scope of changes that are made to the Act.
Purpose and methodology
The history of cooperatives and community benefit societies in the UK is intertwined with colonial history, Black British history and the struggle for equality. For example, during the 20th century, cooperative movements in Black communities helped address exclusion from mainstream financial institutions, providing an avenue for economic empowerment and community resilience. The legacy of these movements demonstrates the importance of legal frameworks that support cooperative principles and community-oriented models as part of broader anti-racist and social justice efforts in the UK.
Our consultation response will engage directly with cooperatives and community benefit societies that have utilised these legal forms specifically with a social and racial justice lens. Through this engagement, we aim to ensure that the experiences and perspectives of grassroots communities of color are considered in shaping the future legal framework for cooperatives and community benefit societies in the UK. By gathering insights from these groups, our response will seek to advocate for reforms that empower cooperatives and community benefit societies to play a more prominent role in advancing social and racial justice in the UK. We believe that this review presents a critical opportunity to rethink and reshape the legal landscape to better support social justice initiatives led by and for marginalised communities.
Proposed areas of input
The full list of reforms being consulted on by the Law Commission are visible here (see page 178 onwards for the specific questions proposed by the Law Commission). Of these, we believe the following proposals will have the most significant impact on the use of Co-operatives and community benefit societies by social and racial justice organisations. We will therefore focus our consultation response on the following proposals:
- New statutory definitions of Co-operatives and community benefit societies and whether a new definition should apply retrospectively
- Whether charitable community benefit societies should cease to be exempt charities (i.e. should be registered with and regulated by the Charity Commission)
- Society officers and members, their duties, and what information about them should be published (e.g. making names and contact details available for inspection by the public and the FCA)
- Filing and reporting requirements with the FCA, including penalties for non-compliance
- Powers of the registrar
- Executing documents
- The effectiveness of the Act, including suggested improvements to support the development and formation of new societies, barriers to growth and innovation, unnecessary costs and burdens.
Community round table invitation
If you are a co-operative or community benefit society led by and for underrepresented communities in the UK (including black/global majority/people of colour/indigenous communities, refugee/migrant/asylum seeker communities/ LGBTQIA+ communities) and would like to participate in our round table consultations or to help input into our consultation response (before 9th December 2024 to meet the consultation deadline of 10th December 2024), please contact us: [email protected].