More than £50m of charitable income accounted for following Commission inquiry
Melanie May | 17 October 2019 | News
More than £50 million of charitable income has been accounted for, and 28 charities removed from the register, following action by the Charity Commission.
The Charity Commission this week published the results of its pre-inquiry and class inquiry work into charities that had failed to file financial information with the regulator for two or more years in the last five years. In total, the action has seen £51,615,231 of charitable income accounted for, with 97 charities addressing their failure to file and submit their outstanding annual documents.
Overall, the Commission engaged with 125 charities. During the pre-inquiry stage charities received a final warning that they would be placed into the inquiry if they fail to submit outstanding annual documents by a specified date. This resulted in 69 charities responding with over £37 million of charitable income being accounted for.
During the inquiry period, a further 28 submitted their outstanding documents, resulting in around £14.5 million of charitable income being accounted for.
Another 28 charities were found to have ceased to exist or to operate, and were removed from the register.
Amy Spiller, Head of Investigations Team at the Charity Commission said:
“I am pleased that our intervention has resulted in charities putting right their default, and that we have been able to account for significant sums which charities can use to do good and make people’s lives better.
“Generous donors have a right to be able to see clearly how their money is being spent, and be assured that they are going to their intended causes. This inquiry should serve as a reminder to all charities of the need to comply with their important legal duties, or inform us if they are no longer operating.
“We are committed to informing public choice about charities. Charities must lead the way here and evidence how they are delivering on their charitable mission and purpose through financial information that they make available. “This is vital if charities are to meet legitimate public expectations around transparency and accountability.”
The full report is available on GOV.UK.
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.