Letter: Who gets what from charity card sales

Sir: There is an inaccuracy and an omission in Charles Oulton's article about charity Christmas cards (14 December). The inaccuracy concerns the statement that Age Concern 'relies on stores like Marks & Spencer printing on its behalf'. We do not print on behalf of Age Concern. We do, however, choose six major charities, with their agreement, to be the beneficiaries of our charity Christmas cards. The omission is that our cards clearly state the sum of money to be handed over to the charity, in our case 20p on each purchase.

We are pleased to see that legislation will now oblige others to be as honest about how much money they are passing over to the charity. Each of our six beneficiaries will receive about pounds 20,000, in addition to the regular annual support we already give to many of them.

Yours faithfully,

BARRY HYMAN

Community Affairs

Marks & Spencer

London, W1

14 December