Research and analysis

Casework and registrations data: January to March 2026

Published 30 July 2026

Applies to England and Wales

Introduction

This report contains the Charity Commission’s registration and casework figures for January  to March 2026. The release covers key areas of the regulator’s work throughout the period, including registrations and register information, regulatory action cases, statutory inquiries figures and ‘Revitalising Trusts’ cases.

Why figures may change over time

Our quarterly statistics are produced using the most complete data available at the time of publication. As further data is received, validated, or corrected, we may update previously published figures.

These revisions are typically small and reflect improved data quality rather than a change in underlying trends.

The Charity Commission

The Charity Commission is the registrar and regulator of charities in England and Wales. Parliament has given us five statutory objectives which are to:

• promote compliance by charity trustees with their legal obligations in exercising control and management of their charities
• enhance the accountability of charities to donors, beneficiaries and the general public
• increase public trust and confidence in charities
• promote awareness and understanding of the operation of the public benefit requirement
• promote effective use of charitable resources

Registrations and register information

There were 171,112 charities on the register at the end of March 2026 with a total annual income of £107 billion and a total expenditure of £107 billion ^{[footnote 1]}.

The register of charities contains an up-to-date sector overview.

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec 2025	Jan to Mar 2026	Yearly total
Registration applications	2,811	2,901	2,863	3,184	11,759
Charities registered	1,101	1,301	1,158	1,090	4,650
Removals from register	1,135	983	1,076	1,206	4,400
Charities on the register [footnote 1]	170,827	171,153	171,231	171,112
Trustees [footnote 1]	923,332	923,536	922,817	920,826

‘Revitalising Trusts’ programme

The ‘Revitalising Trusts’ programme supports charities that have spent less than 30% of their income in the past 5 years. The programme helps charities in situations where it is hard for the charity to:

• get new trustees
• spend their income
• identify beneficiaries
• find time to run the charity

To ensure the charity’s funds are spent effectively, charities can:

• transfer their assets to another charity
• close down or ‘wind up’
• change their purposes to continue working more effectively

Cases closed refer to charities spending funds effectively in any of the ways outlined above. The amount revitalised specifically refers to the transfer of assets to another charity.

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec 2025	Jan to mar 2026	Yearly total
Revitalising Trusts – cases closed	24	44	44	31	143
Revitalising Trusts – amount revitalised	£721,977	£1.7 million	£4.4 million	£4.9 million	£11.84 million

Regulatory authority cases

Regulatory authority casework is a statutory function of the Commission, which encourages and facilitates the better administration of charities. As part of this work, the Commission considers applications from trustees seeking its consent to take certain actions, including to:

• amend a charity’s purpose
• change structure or governance
• merge with another charity
• deal with assets

When considering applications, the Commission’s role is to ensure that trustees make decisions that are in their charity’s best interests with a focus on beneficiaries.

Some of the most frequent enabling powers used by the Commission include:

• allowing charities to amend their charitable purpose or how they achieve it
• authorising actions which are in the best interests of a charity but which the trustees do not have the power to take

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec 2025	Jan to Mar 2026	Yearly total
Regulatory authority cases opened	840	837	727	740	3,144
Regulatory authority cases closed	733	726	674	770	2,903
Regulatory authority permissions granted	734	747	751	870	3,102

Regulatory action

Regulatory concern cases

Occasionally things go wrong in a charity due to the actions or failure to act of the trustees. The Commission will identify and investigate problems in charities so we can work to resolve issues of concern. We prioritise the most serious issues: those which have the potential to cause the highest level of harm to public trust and confidence, or which may affect trustees’ ability to comply with their duties.  

These figures exclude serious incident reports, matters of material significance reports and statutory inquiries as these are reported in later sections of this publication.

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec 2025	Jan to Mar 2026	Yearly total
Regulatory concern cases opened	1,317	1,577	1,420	1,558	5,684
Regulatory concern cases closed	1,084	1,377	1,193	1,315	4,966
Regulatory concern cases active [footnote 1]	1,367	1,500	1,659	1,833

Serious incident reports and matters of material significance

The Commission requires charities to report serious incidents. A serious incident is an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in or risks significant:

• harm to a charity’s beneficiaries, staff, volunteers or others who come into contact with the charity through its work
• loss of a charity’s money or assets
• damage to a charity’s property
• harm to a charity’s work or reputation

The Commission has guidance for charity trustees on how to report serious incidents. Reporting serious incidents is part of the effective management of a charity and reports are not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing in a charity.

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec	Jan to Mar 2026	Yearly total
Serious incident reports opened	783	1,015	856	887	3,599
Serious incident reports closed	720	889	837	631	3,090

Matters of material significance include, but are not limited to, dishonesty and fraud, internal controls and governance, money laundering and criminal activity and support of terrorism. Any person appointed as an independent examiner or auditor for a charity has a duty to report matters of material significance.

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec 2025	Jan to Mar 2026	Yearly total
Matters of material significance reports opened	80	76	106	96	398
Matters of material significance reports closed	106	99	124	89	418

Statutory inquiries

A statutory inquiry is a legal power enabling the Commission to formally investigate matters of regulatory concern within a charity and to use protective powers for the benefit of the charity and its beneficiaries, assets or reputation. An inquiry will help identify the extent, if any, of misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity; assess any risk to the charity and its assets; and decide if the Commission needs to act to protect the property of the charity.

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec 2025	Jan to Mar 2026	Yearly total
Statutory inquiries opened	18	20	17	14	69
Statutory inquiries closed	12	20	16	20	68
Statutory inquiries ongoing [footnote 1]	190	190	191	185

Contact Centre

The Commission’s contact centre provides a first point of contact for trustees, charities, and the public. It offers guidance on using the Commission’s services, helps with accessibility requests, and supports people with service-related queries or complaints.

Category	April to June 2025	July to Sept 2025	Oct to Dec 2025	Jan to Mar 2026	Yearly total
Contact Centre calls received	24,990	24,365	23,514	25,131	98,000

1. This metric indicates point in time figures and not aggregates of the four quarters. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵