Casework and registrations data: October to December 2023
Updated 4 April 2024
Applies to England and Wales
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Casework and registrations data: October to December 2023
This report contains the Charity Commission’s registration and casework figures for October to December 2023.
Introduction
This report contains the Charity Commission’s registration and casework figures for October to December 2023. 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.
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 169,684 charities on the register at the end of December 2023 with a total annual income of £93.03 billion and a total expenditure of £90.92 billion.
The register of charities contains an up-to-date Sector Overview.
| Category | October to December 2023 |
|---|---|
| Registration applications | 2,141 |
| Charities registered | 1,342 |
| Removals from register | 940 |
‘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 | October to December 2023 |
|---|---|
| Revitalising Trusts – cases closed | 59 |
| Revitalising Trusts – amount revitalised | £3,756,359 |
Regulatory action
Regulatory concern cases
Occasionally things go wrong in a charity due to the actions or non-actions 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 | October to December 2023 |
|---|---|
| Regulatory concern cases opened | 1,049 |
| Regulatory concern cases closed | 999 |
| Regulatory concern cases active | 797 |
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 | October to December 2023 |
|---|---|
| Serious incident reports opened | 809 |
| Serious incident reports closed | 732 |
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 | October to December 2023 |
|---|---|
| Matters of material significance reports opened | 124 |
| Matters of material significance reports closed | 109 |
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 | October to December 2023 |
|---|---|
| Statutory inquiries opened | 19 |
| Statutory inquiries closed | 17 |
| Statutory inquiries ongoing | 112 |