137.—(1) A person or persons proposing to promote public charitable collections (other than exempt collections) may apply to the Commission for a public collections certificate in respect of those collections.
(2) The application shall be made—
(a)within the specified period falling before the first of the collections is to commence, or
(b)before such later date as the Commission may allow in the case of that application.
(3) The application shall—
(a)be made in such form as may be specified,
(b)state the period for which the certificate is sought (which must be no more than 5 years), and
(c)contain such other information as may be specified.
(4) An application under this section may be made for a public collections certificate in respect of a single collection; and the references in this Chapter, in the context of such certificates, to public charitable collections are to be read accordingly.
(5) In subsections (2) and (3) “specified” means specified in regulations made by the Commission after consulting such persons or bodies of persons as it considers appropriate.
(6) In this section “exempt collection” means a public charitable collection which is an exempt collection by virtue of section 136.