Whistleblowing disclosures made to the Charity Commission for England and Wales 2024 to 2025
Published 24 September 2025
Applies to England and Wales
© Crown copyright 2025
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1. The statutory framework under employment legislation
The Charity Commission is a ‘prescribed person’ under the Public Interest Disclosure (Prescribed Persons Order) 2014, making it the regulatory body for appropriate disclosures on matters relating to ‘the proper administration of charities and funds given, or held, for charitable purposes’.
Whistleblowing law providing protection for ‘workers’ is set in the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998). This provides the statutory framework for employment protections for workers who make a qualifying disclosure (or ‘blow the whistle’) to us about suspected wrongdoing in charities, including crimes and regulatory breaches by their employer.
2. Our functions, objectives and powers
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.
3. Our approach to whistleblowing disclosures
Whistleblowing disclosures can help us to detect serious problems in charities and play a valuable role in our regulation of the charity sector. In undertaking our role, we take account of Whistleblowing: prescribed persons guidance from the Department for Business and Trade, the approach taken by other prescribed persons, specialist guidance and our own experience.
We are likely to treat charity workers and volunteers (including trustees) who raise serious concerns with us about their charity as whistle-blowers. Their role within a charity can mean they are well placed to identify and report serious problems.
While those who do not meet the definition of a ‘worker’ do not have any statutory protections if they report serious concerns to us (unlike workers), we recognise that in other respects they face many of the personal challenges and risks experienced by workers and therefore may require the same sort of engagement from us.
When we receive a whistleblowing disclosure, we consider the information disclosed to us, then decide and prioritise what action, if any, to take according to the nature and level of risk. Our assessment depends on what we are told and the severity of the matter.
4. Whistleblowing facts and figures 2024 to 2025
We received 546[1] whistleblowing disclosures between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025. We continue to see high levels of whistleblowing disclosures compared to previous years and 2024 to 2025 is the second-highest number of disclosures received within the last 10 years, as shown in the chart below.
| Year | Total | % difference year on year |
|---|---|---|
| 2024/2025 | 546 | -2.7 |
| 2023/2024 | 561 | 71.6 |
| 2022/2023 | 327 | 16.4 |
| 2021/2022 | 281 | -34.8 |
| 2020/2021 | 431 | 74.5 |
| 2019/2020 | 247 | 33.5 |
| 2018/2019 | 185 | 83.2 |
| 2017/2018 | 101 | 14.8 |
| 2016/2017 | 88 | 1.1 |
| 2015/2016 | 87 | 0 |
Key findings from the 2024 to 2025 disclosures:
- The majority of disclosures were from employees and ex-employees (54% in 2024 to 2025, also 54% in 2023 to 2024).
- The primary issues raised remain financial management, governance or safeguarding concerns as has been the case in previous reporting periods.
4.1 Source of whistleblowing disclosures
We received the majority of disclosures from employees (54%), which includes current employees and ex-employees. The remaining disclosures were received from non-employees (46%).
| Employee | Ex-Employee | Non-employee |
|---|---|---|
| 177 | 118 | 251 |
4.2 Charity classification
Each registered charity has a particular classification code to identify its purpose.
As a charity can have more than one classification, this means that the numbers shown in these tables will be larger than the overall number of individual disclosures (546) that we have received.
The classifications regard what the charity does, who the charity helps, and how the charity operates.
What the charity does
| What | Total |
|---|---|
| Education/training | 267 |
| General Charitable Purposes | 167 |
| The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives | 146 |
| The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty | 125 |
| Economic/community Development/employment | 118 |
| Disability | 101 |
| Arts/culture/heritage/science | 84 |
| Amateur Sport | 74 |
| Recreation | 67 |
| Religious Activities | 64 |
| Environment/conservation/heritage | 60 |
| Other Charitable Purposes | 59 |
| Accommodation/housing | 57 |
| Human Rights/religious Or Racial Harmony/equality Or Diversity | 49 |
| Animals | 25 |
| Overseas Aid/famine Relief | 23 |
| Armed Forces/emergency Service Efficiency | 8 |
Who the charity helps
| Who | Total |
|---|---|
| The General Public/mankind | 279 |
| Children/young People | 252 |
| People With Disabilities | 184 |
| Elderly/old People | 170 |
| Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies | 130 |
| Other Defined Groups | 120 |
| People Of A Particular Ethnic Or Racial Origin | 67 |
How the charity operates
| How | Total |
|---|---|
| Provides Services | 317 |
| Provides Advocacy/advice/information | 244 |
| Provides Buildings/facilities/open Space | 200 |
| Provides Human Resources | 118 |
| Sponsors Or Undertakes Research | 85 |
| Makes Grants To Organisations | 79 |
| Other Charitable Activities | 75 |
| Acts As An Umbrella Or Resource Body | 74 |
| Makes Grants To Individuals | 65 |
| Provides Other Finance | 1 |
4.3 Type of issues raised
When we open a case, we record the type of issue raised with us. The top three reported issues in 2024 to 2025 are governance failures, financial harms, and safeguarding and protecting people - this is consistent with the trends seen in our regulatory compliance casework overall.
Please note, where disclosures include more than one type of issue, we base the type of issue on the primary issue reported.
The predominance of these three types of issue follows a similar pattern to reporting over previous years.
As in the previous year, governance remains the most prominent type of issue, continuing to account for a significant proportion of total disclosures despite a small decrease in the overall volume. While overall volumes have dropped, governance-related reports have continued to rise, increasing from 277 to 303. In contrast, reports concerning financial harms have decreased to 96 this year compared to 128 last year. Similarly safeguarding-related disclosures have declined from 104 to 84.
Safeguarding and governance issues cover a wide range of situations and are often linked: for example, governance issues can be significant contributory factors to safeguarding incidents, most specifically when the safeguarding issue concerns a risk to beneficiaries.
It is important to note that the Commission is not a safeguarding authority. We do not investigate individual allegations of abuse, decide whether any allegations are true or bring prosecutions. But we can refer concerns to relevant safeguarding agencies and other regulatory bodies to take further action. Rather, the Commission can hold trustees to account if things go wrong and look at how trustees have acted to protect beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and anyone else who comes into contact with their charity.
The other types of issue raised in 2024 to 2025 include: disputes (32), conflicts of interest (25), reputational damage (3), public benefit (2), and GDPR breach (1).
| Type of Issue | 16/17 | 17/18 | 18/19 | 19/20 | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 | 24/25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governance | 57 | 60 | 72 | 109 | 141 | 112 | 152 | 277 | 303 |
| Financial Harms | 11 | 8 | 18 | 46 | 121 | 50 | 62 | 128 | 96 |
| Safeguarding and Protecting People | 15 | 24 | 89 | 72 | 122 | 90 | 81 | 104 | 84 |
4.4 Action we have taken
We are a risk-led regulator. Being risk-led in our regulation means being proactive in identifying risks and intervening, where possible, to prevent harm before it occurs; addressing harm effectively where it occurs; and focusing our resources on the highest risks. Our Regulatory and Risk Framework (now called ‘Raising a concern with the Charity Commission (CC47)’) outlines how we operate as a risk-led regulator, and in particular how we identify and assess risks, how we respond to risks, and how we review and adapt our approach.
We seek to hold charities to account to basic standards, and while we ensure concerns are investigated and intentional wrongdoing dealt with, we also focus on supporting trustees to get things back on track when they do not go exactly as intended.
Our assessment of the nature and level of risk of the 546 disclosures led us to open a case in response to 363 (66%) of the disclosures, so we could consider further regulatory engagement. The remaining 183 (34%) disclosures received related to a charity which was already subject to an open case in the same period.
At the end of the reporting period 312 (83%) of the 363 cases were closed and the remaining 51 cases (17%) were ongoing and still subject to engagement at the year-end.
When a case is closed, we record what we have done by recording the outcome.
The outcome codes recorded in closed cases fell into the following categories:
| Outcome | Total |
|---|---|
| Following enquiries, it was decided that it was not proportionate to take further action | 210 |
| Regulatory advice and guidance provided / action plan provided under section 15(2) of the Act | 84 |
| Cases ongoing at the financial year end | 51 |
| Information gathering powers exercised | 8 |
| Signposted to Other Regulator | 7 |
| Verified that trustees were dealing with the issue | 3 |
We focus on dealing with concerns which may cause the greatest impact or harm to charities and public trust and confidence in charities.
The regulatory action we take will be proportionate to how serious the harm is. For example, we may provide the trustees with advice and guidance or an action plan as a first step and monitor the charity’s progress.
If these actions do not resolve the issue, or in cases where there is the most serious impact or harm, we can use our protective powers.
We are unable to take forward every concern about a charity. Where we assess that a concern will likely have low impact on a charity, we will not take it forward, but we will still keep a record of it.
5. The impact of whistleblowing disclosures on our ability to perform our duties
The disclosures we have received from whistleblowers this year have helped us to detect and prevent concerns in a number of charities and take steps to put these right.
Examples of impacts include:
- opening compliance cases into charities where the disclosure identified a serious risk
- using our powers to protect charities’ beneficiaries, assets, work and reputations and, more widely, public trust and confidence in charities and the charity sector
- identifying other governance issues not directly raised by the whistleblower and ensuring these are addressed
- ensuring charities are complying with their safeguarding duties
- giving regulatory advice to trustees to make them aware of their duties and responsibilities and ensure they make significant and necessary improvements to their charity’s governance.
6. Whistleblowing in the Charity Commission
Our ambition is to be an expert Commission that is fair, balanced and independent so that charity can thrive.
Supporting and encouraging disclosures assist us in this and are an important part of how the Commission can uncover wrongdoing and harm in charities. It also enables the Commission to fulfil its statutory objectives (as set out above in section 2).
Our relationship with the independent charity Protect is ongoing with Protect continuing to operate a confidential advice line service on our behalf which enables potential whistle-blowers to access expert support and guidance.
This service can be accessed via Protect’s specialist freephone number of 0800 055 7214 and, as well as providing advice, Protect encourage individuals contacting it to report wrongdoing in charities to the relevant authorities, including the Commission.
Individuals who want to make a disclosure to the Commission have an easy way to approach us via our dedicated email address of whistleblowing@charitycommission.gov.uk, and we offer a follow up phone call to those who makes a disclosure via this route if they want one to ensure that they are listened to and we can hear from them directly about what is concerning them.
Further information on whistleblowing in the Commission can be found on our website:
Report serious wrongdoing at a charity as a worker or volunteer
[1] Please note: A previously published figure differed slightly due to a minor reporting variance. The confirmed number of whistleblowing disclosures within the reporting period is 546.