Report shows up shop scrooges on Charity Christmas Cards - Bruce

4.24.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 3rd Dec 2007

Malcolm Bruce has called for minimum donation limits to be set for companies selling charity Christmas cards

Aberdeenshire MP Malcolm Bruce has tabled a Parliamentary motion backing moves to set a limit on the amount of money given to charities as part of charity Christmas card sales.

A Which? and Charities Advisory Trust report on charity Christmas cards shows that on average less than 10per cent of the purchase price is actually donated to the designated charity with some shops offering as little as 4 per cent.

Mr Bruce's motion has received cross- party support in the House of Commons. Commenting the Gordon MP said:

"It is disgraceful that some shops are giving so little to the charities named on packs of charity Christmas cards. The Which? surveys shows that people expect 40 per cent to be given to the charity but the reality falls far short of this.

"There are some good examples of shops offering over 50 per cent however and I would urge people to look carefully on the back of the packets to see just how 'charitable' the cards are. We need to stop these scrooges taking advantage of the public in the season of goodwill."

ENDS