Cap. 279 Art. 2Interpretation.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires -

"benevolent" shall mean a social purpose or other public benefit or public purpose; ''charitable purpose'' shall mean a social purpose or other public benefit or public purpose; ''collection'' means an appeal to the public, or to a part or article of the public, whether by means of visits from house to house, or by any overt act in a street or other public place, or by means of any advertisement, or by the use of technological means, including the internet or any social media channel on any platform of any type, or in any other manner whatsoever, to give, whether for consideration or not, money or other property, but does not include -

(a) the selling of articles in any street or other public place when the articles are sold in the ordinary course of trade, and for the purpose of earning a livelihood, and no representation is made by or on behalf of the seller that any part of the proceeds of sale will be devoted to any charitable or similar purpose;

(b) collections made in a church or in a place of public worship in the ordinary course for the upkeep, embellishment or improvement thereof or for services held therein, and collections for the purposes declared in writing to be benevolent by the competent local or international religious authorities;

(c) collections made or organized by a bona fide political party for its own use;

(d) collections made pursuant to any activity as is mentioned in article 194(2) (a) of the Code of Police

Laws and any activity as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of the said subarticle;

(e) collections made by any organisation enrolled with the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations in terms of the Voluntary Organisations Act for as long as it remains so enrolled;

*See article 1(2) as originally enacted, which subarticle has been omitted under the Statute Law Revision Act, 1980, and Legal Notice 27 of 1981. "the Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Police and includes any person authorised by the said Commissioner in that behalf; "house" includes a place of business; "licence" means a licence under this Act;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for the Police; and includes any person authorized by the said Minister in that behalf;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations under this Act; "proceeds" in relation to a collection, means all money and other property given, whether for consideration or not, in response to the appeal made;

"promoter" in relation to a collection, means a person who causes others to act, whether for remuneration or otherwise, as collectors for the purposes of the collection, and includes each of the individuals signing an application for a licence; "public place" means any street and any other place to which the public is admitted or has access, including by the use of technological means, such as the internet or any social media channel on any platform of any type and, without prejudice to the generality of the aforesaid, includes any church, any government department and any place of public entertainment;

"street" means any street, road, alley, square, fortification or other place of public passage, and any open air precinct to which the public is admitted or has access.

(2) For the purposes of this Act, the terms "social purpose", "public benefit" or "public purpose" shall have the meaning assigned to them in article 2 of the Voluntary Organisations Act.

(3) For the purposes of this Act, a collection shall be deemed to be made for a particular purpose where the appeal is made in association with a representation that the money or other property appealed for, or part thereof, will be applied for that purpose.

(4) For the purposes of this Act, when a purpose is declared to be benevolent, a copy of such declaration may be requested by any person and the person responsible for such collection shall produce the same within a reasonable time. In case of default the Commissioner of Police may demand the same from the competent religious authority which shall deliver the same within ten working days and the Commissioner shall release the same to the person requesting it.