Casework and registrations data: July to September 2023
Updated 4 April 2024
Applies to England and Wales
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Introduction
This report contains the Charity Commission’s registration and casework figures for Q2 (July to September) 2023. The release covers key areas of the regulator’s work throughout the period, including registrations and register information, regulatory concern cases, statutory inquiries figures and ‘Revitalising Trusts’ cases.
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 169,310 charities on the register at the end of September 2023 with a total annual income of £90.74 billion and a total expenditure of £88.31 billion.
The register of charities contains an up-to-date Sector Overview.
| Category | July to September 2023 |
|---|---|
| Registration applications | 2,180 |
| Charities registered | 1,168 |
| Removals from register | 1,047 |
‘Revitalising Trusts’ programme
The ‘Revitalising Trusts’ programme targets 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 on public benefit, charities can:
- transfer their assets to another charity
- close down, or ‘wind up’
- change their purposes to continue working more effectively
The table below contains the figures for July to September 2023.
| Category | July to September 2023 |
|---|---|
| Revitalising Trusts cases closed | 65 |
| Revitalising Trusts - amount | £2,188,275 |
Regulatory concern cases
Regulatory concern cases include both proactively and reactively opened compliance cases. We prioritise our casework resources towards addressing the highest risks, 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 do not include whistleblowing, serious incident or matters of material significance reports that have not progressed to become cases.
The table below contains the figures for July to September 2023.
| Category | July to September 2023 |
|---|---|
| Regulatory concern cases opened | 715 |
| Regulatory concern cases closed | 921 |
| Regulatory concern cases active | 755 |
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 whether the commission needs to act to protect the property of the charity.
The table below contains the figures for July to September 2023.
| Category | July to September 2023 |
|---|---|
| Statutory inquiries opened | 5 |
| Statutory inquiries closed | 24 |
| Statutory inquiries ongoing | 114 |