Corporate report

Dealing with wrongdoing and harm: statistics

Published 29 January 2019

The charity sector we regulate 2017-18: summary

Charity finances

We regulated:

• £76 billion of charity income
• £73.5 billion of charity spend

Total trustees

There were 953,442 trustee positions with approximately 700,000 different trustees. 80% of trustees have no support from staff or volunteers.

Charities on the register

There were 168,010 charities on the register.

We received 8,375 applications to register a charity. We removed 4,360 charities from the register.

Customer contact

We received 94,165 emails, calls or letters to our contact centre.

Commission income

Our income was £22.4 million

Investigations and compliance in 2017-18: summary

Regulatory compliance cases

We opened 2,269 new cases (up from 1,664 in 2016-17).

We concluded 1,925 cases (up from 1,499 in 2016-17).

Reports of serious incidents

We received 2,819 reports of serious incidents (up from 2,181 in 2016-17). Over half were about safeguarding.

Reports from auditors and independent examiners

Auditors and independent examiners sent in 287 reports of material significance, up from 54 in 2016-17.

Monitoring cases

We opened 415 new compliance cases (down from 503 in 2016-17).

We concluded 380 cases (down from 586 in 2016-17).

Whistleblowing reports

We received 101 reports from whistleblowers (up from 88 in 2016-17).

Statutory inquiries

We opened 138 new inquiries (down from 187 in 2016-17).

We concluded 79 inquiries (down from 94 in 2016-17).

Charity registrations in 2017-18: summary

New charities on the register

We received 8,375 applications to register a charity. We registered 5,398 charities.

825 new registered charities operate outside of England and Wales.

What they do

The most popular purposes were:

• education or training
• general charitable purposes
• disability
• religious activities
• prevention or relief of poverty

The least popular purposes were:

• accommodation or housing
• overseas aid or famine relief
• armed forces or emergency service efficiency
• animals
• environment, conservation or heritage

Who they help

The most popular beneficiaries were:

• general public or mankind
• children or young people
• people with disabilities

The least popular beneficiaries were:

• people of a particular ethnic or racial origin
• other defined groups
• other charities or voluntary bodies

How they work

The most popular activities were:

• provides services
• provides advocacy, advice or information
• provides building facilities or open space

The least popular activities were:

• provides human resources
• acts as an umbrella or resource body
• sponsors or undertakes research

Our work in 2017-18 compared to previous years

Data since 2014-15 on:

Table: compliance cases

Compliance cases	Apr ‘18-Sep ‘18	2017-18	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
Operational compliance cases opened	1,174	2,269	1,664	1,327	1,182
Operational compliance cases closed	1,067	1,925	1,499	1,309	1,257
Active compliance cases	586	605	379	314	318
Operational case reports published	6	12	16	25	29
Average duration of active compliance cases (days)	127.58	155	162.2	no data	no data

Table: investigations, monitoring and enforcement (IME) work

IME monitoring	Apr ‘18-Sep ‘18	2017-18	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
IME monitoring cases opened	199	415	503	424	429
IME monitoring cases closed	191	380	586	405	375
Active IME monitoring cases	256	213	178	no data	no data
IME compliance or inspection visits	53	92	113	106	116

Table: statutory inquiries

Statutory inquiries	Apr ‘18-Sep ‘18	2017-18	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
Statutory inquiries opened	13	138	187	52	103
Statutory inquiries closed	24	79	94	48	51
Statutory inquiry reports published	4	22	67	35	39
Active inquiries	296	305	248	157	135
Average duration of closed inquiry cases (days)	446.6	335	380.3	no data	no data

Table: scrutiny of charity accounts

We routinely review trustees’ annual reports and accounts. Complex cases are referred for expert review. The number of accounts scrutinised is the number reviewed by our accountants.

Accounts and finances	Apr ‘18-Sep ‘18	2017-18	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
Number of accounts scrutinised	494	534	894	986	1,097
Amount of charitable funds directly protected by regulatory action (2014-15 figures only include IME, other years include IME and operations compliance work)	£7.56 million	£33.2 million	£81 million	£14.9 million	£44.6 million
Total income of charitable directly regulated by compliance supervision (2014-15 figures only include IME, other years include IME and operations compliance work)	£25.1 billion	£48.6 billion	£21.9 billion	£1.6 million	£1.4 million

Table: charity registration

Charity registration	Apr ‘18-Sep ‘18	2017-18	2016-17	2015-16	2014-15
Applications to register a charity	3,952	8,375	8,368	8,198	7,192
Charity registrations	2,370	5,398	6,045	5,169	4,648

Performance measures

Our performance against targets in 2017-18.

Detection

We carried out 92 compliance visits to charities which are subject to monitoring and identified following a risk assessment. Our target minimum number was 102.

There was an increase in information exchanges with other agencies to 3,579 (from 2,733 in 2016-17).

596 of these were about safeguarding issues. This was an increase of 144% on 2016-17, when there were 244.

We aimed to increase the percentage of information disclosures we received from other regulators and agencies through our statutory gateway.

We routinely review trustees’ annual reports and accounts in our work. We refer more complex cases for expert review. We proactively scrutinised 307 sets of accounts.

Investigation and compliance

We used powers 1,135 times in compliance case work. This was up from 1,099 in 2016-17. Our target was an increase on the previous year.

86% of inquiry, compliance and monitoring cases resulted in at least one of the specified beneficial impacts. Our target was 90%.

We protected £33.2 million of funds through regulatory intervention. Our target was an increase on the previous year when it was £81 million.

We protected £48.6 billion of income through compliance work. Our target was an increase on the previous year when it was £21.9 billion.

Reported concerns about charities

Concerns about charities were reported through us in three different ways:

Reports of serious incidents

We received 2,819 serious incident reports in 2017-18 (up from 2,181 in 2016-17):

• 1,580 about safeguarding
• 291 about governance issues
• 268 about fraud or money laundering
• 223 about theft
• 56 about investigation by another authority
• 27 about links to terrorism
• 3 general reports
• 371 about other issues, including other types of criminality

Of the serious incidents reported to us:

• 1,736 (61%) were dealt with solely by our customer facing gateway team
• 947 (34%) were referred to our Operations teams
• 136 (5%) referred to our investigations and monitoring teams

Table: when we received serious incident reports

Type of report	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Safeguarding	78	118	68	52	33	90	90	198	91	144	269	349
Other - including other types of criminality	21	18	20	11	25	18	41	39	33	52	56	37
Governance issues	12	9	13	27	16	14	29	34	33	26	37	41
Fraud or money laundering	13	19	26	11	10	20	33	58	22	14	14	28
Theft	13	18	15	20	16	23	15	19	10	17	20	37
Investigation by another authority	8	5	3	7	5	4	4	7	1	5	5	2
Links to terrorism	3	1	1	3	2	2	0	5	3	2	2	3
General report	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	1

Whistleblowing reports

We dealt with 101 whistleblowing enquiries this year (up from 88 in 2016-17):

• 60 about governance issues
• 24 about safeguarding
• 8 about fraud or money laundering
• 5 about theft
• 1 about a charity set up for criminal purposes
• 1 about links to terrorism
• 2 about other issues

Of the whistleblowing incidents reported to us:

• 86 were referred to our operations teams
• 8 were dealt with solely by our gateway / assessment team
• 7 were referred to our investigations and monitoring teams

Table: when we received whistleblowing reports

Type of report	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar
Governance issues	1	5	7	2	3	1	8	7	7	6	2	11
Safeguarding	1	4	1	0	2	0	1	3	1	3	5	3
Fraud or money laundering	0	1	0	1	0	2	1	3	0	0	0	0
Theft	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	1
Charity set up for criminal purposes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Links to terrorism	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Other	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0

More information about whistleblowing reports we received

Auditor and independent examiner reports

We received 194 reports from auditors and 93 from independent examiners:

• 235 about matters of material significance
• 28 about governance issues
• 12 about fraud or money laundering
• 4 about safeguarding
• 3 about theft
• 1 about a charity set up for criminal purposes
• 1 about investigation by another authority
• 3 about other types of issue, including other types of criminality

Of the reports from auditors and independent examiners:

• 203 were referred to our operations teams
• 68 were dealt with solely by our gateway / assessment team
• 16 were referred to our investigations and monitoring teams

Cases we opened and concluded

Regulatory compliance cases

Type of compliance case	Opened	Concluded
Serious governance concerns	730	836
Other	582	488
Current or historic safeguarding and beneficiaries at risk	552	330
Financial abuse and/or mismanagement issues	466	429
Trustee pay, and concerns about trustee or other private benefits or trustee decision making	323	245
Fraud, theft or other misapplication of funds	204	214
Concerns about fundraising	72	86
Land issues	64	58
Unmanaged conflicts of interest	44	102
Alleged terrorism or extremism	4	0

Inquiry cases

Type of inquiry case	Opened	Concluded
Financial abuse and or mismanagement issues	124	71
Serious governance concerns	20	11
Trustee pay and concerns about trustee or other private benefits or trustee decision making	12	4
Alleged terrorism or extremism	9	5
Fraud, theft or other misapplication of funds	9	0
Current or historic safeguarding and beneficiaries at risk	7	2
Unmanaged conflicts of interest	6	0
Concerns about fundraising	1	1
Other	1	1

Use of our powers

We use our powers 1,135 times in 2017-18 (and 651 times between April and September 2018)

• 426 letters or directions
• 675 orders
• 34 schemes

Download full data on powers we used in 2017-18 (CSV, 4.09KB)

Additional powers used

Additional powers or directions used	Apr 2018 to Sept 2018	2017-18
046(1) Decision to open an inquiry	13	138
054 Disclosure of information from a relevant public authority	1,001	1,738
056 Decision to disclose information to a relevant public authority	1,104	1,841

New powers

We used the new or amended powers introduced by the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 137 times since they were introduced. They were used 78 times during the 2017-18 financial year.

Letter or Direction

Type	Apr 2018-Sep 2018	Apr 2017-Mar 2018	Apr 2016-Mar 2017
075A(1) Issue official warning	1	5	0
075A(3) Notice of official warning	9	4	1
Total	10	9	1

Order

Type	Apr 2018-Sep 2018	Apr 2017-Mar 2018	Apr 2016-Mar 2017
079(2)(a) Removal of a trustee or officer during an inquiry	2	10	2
079(A) remove disqualified person from trustee position	0	6	1
084(A) direct specified action not to be taken	2	4	3
085 Directing the application of property in the interests of the charity	6	8	3
089(5) Notice of intention to remove trustee / officer / agent or employee of a charity	2	9	3
181(a) disqualify trustee	7	14	0
s.181(c) (1)(a) –Notice of disqualify trustee under s.181	9	15	0
181(4)(b) power to suspend a trustee	6	1	0
084(B) direct winding up and transfer	0	1	0
084(B) (5)(a) Notice to direct winding up and transfer	2	1	0
Total	36	69	12