Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the application of consumer law to charitable membership subscriptions under the Digital Markets, Consumer and Competition Act 2024 on the finances of those organisations.

Charities are not excluded from existing core consumer law on the basis of their charitable status. The government is engaging closely with the sector in relation to the subscriptions regime in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act 2024.

The impact assessment for the subscriptions chapter in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act can be found here: Subscription traps: annex 2 impact assessment. Together the subscription measures are anticipated to provide £400m of consumer benefits per year and the estimated net direct cost to businesses is £171m per year. Sector-specific analysis has not been conducted.