Consultation on official warnings to charities and trustees
Applies to England and Wales
Detail of outcome
The Charity Commission has published new guidance that takes account of feedback from the consultation.
Feedback received
Detail of feedback received
A number of common themes emerged in the feedback:
- the guidance needs to have greater clarity about the purpose of issuing a warning and how this fits with the commission’s regulatory approach
- the process for issuing official warnings needs to be fair
- charities and their advisers have concerns about the policy proposals for publishing warnings
The commission has taken account of this feedback in developing the new guidance, including operational guidance which gives the greater level of detail that charities and their advisers have requested.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 gives the Charity Commission a new power to issue an official warning to a trustee or to a charity when it considers that there has been a breach of trust or duty, or other misconduct or mismanagement in the charity.
This is similar to powers that many other regulators have. It will supplement the commission’s existing powers for dealing with wrongdoing in charities, and will enable the commission to act in a targeted and more proportionate way.
The commission wants to seek views on how it proposes to use this new power and welcomes responses from charities, professional advisers, members of the public, other regulators or public bodies that exercise similar powers and anyone with an interest in the charity sector. This will help the commission to shape the approach it takes.
