# Web developments at the Charity Commission

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/1999/01/21/web-developments-charity-commission/
- Published: 1999-01-21T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Susan Forrester interviewed Richard Fries, Chief Charity Commissioner, for the
current issue of Trust Monitor, and features the Commission’s latest Web developments.**

As well as the policy function of the Commission and its investigative activities,
she also asked Fries about the Commission’s use of the Web. “The Commission has 
taken to the Web like a duck to water,” writes Forrester, “and its information there
displays the importance it places on being open itself.

Susan Forrester interviewed Richard Fries, Chief Charity Commissioner, for the current
issue of Trust Monitor. As well as the policy function of the Commission and its
investigative activities, she also asked Fries about the Commission’s use of the
Web. “The Commission has taken to the Web like a duck to water,” writes Forrester,“
and its information there displays the importance it places on being open itself.
It compares very favourably with other agencies in this respect. Most importantly
the Public Register is no on the Internet. (Not that you can tell much about a charity
from the bald information presently available, which is simply the information from
the old registration slip, updated as necessary). But what a contrast from the early
1990s when the Public Register was a Dickensian/Bob Cratchit operation with small
fusty registration forms in dingy maroon files stacked by the yard on shelves. The
knock-on effects of this Internet openness are going to grow-massively.

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“Richard Fries confirmed that financial information would soon be included with 
each entry. I asked whether trustees would also be named, a difficult question in
the past, and was pleasantly surprised to hear another affirmative. When this takes
place the Register will truly be a powerful tool to help induce rectitude.”

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   4 January 2008)
 * **[Charity Commission website improvements](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/01/21/charity-commission-website-improvements/)**(
   21 January 2008)