| Charity Commission for England and Wales (Welsh: Comisiwn Elusennau Cymru a Lloegr) | |
|---|---|
| Non-ministerial government department overview | |
| Formed | February 27, 2007 |
| Jurisdiction | England and Wales |
| Headquarters | Harmsworth House, 13-15 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8DP |
| Employees | 466 |
| Annual budget | £32.7 million (2009-2010) [1] |
| Non-ministerial government department executive | Dame Suzi Leather, Chair |
| Website | |
| www.charitycommission.gov.uk | |
The Charity Commission for England and Wales (Welsh: Comisiwn Elusennau Cymru a Lloegr) is the non-ministerial government department that regulates registered charities in England and Wales.
The Charity Commission answers directly to the UK Parliament and to Government ministers, and as a result it is often described as a Quango. It is governed by a board, which is assisted by the Chief Executive (currently Sam Younger) and an executive team.[2] Suzi Leather, DBE was appointed Chair of the Commission's board on 1 August 2006, after being chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the School Food Trust.[3] Geraldine Peacock, CBE was Chief Charity Commissioner (as previous chairs of the Commission have been known) from 2003 to 2006, and Chair-designate from 8 July 2004 to 2006.
It has four sites in London, Taunton, Liverpool and Newport. There are public terminals at each site except Newport for accessing the Commission's web site. The commission's website lists the latest accounts submitted by charities in England and Wales.
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Some bodies with charitable objects but which are not charities are not subject to registration with the Charity Commission and are known as exempt charities; these organisations are specified in Schedule 2 to the Charities Act 1993.[4] The same Act also prevents such a body from being described as a "charity" [5] but allows them similar financial and taxation benefits.
Registration of a charity in England and Wales does not endow that status elsewhere thus further registration has to be made before operating in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Charities in Scotland are regulated by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator.
In Northern Ireland the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland is being established in 2009 to replace earlier regulation by the Voluntary and Community Unit of the Department for Social Development, part of the Northern Ireland Executive.
The Commission carries out general monitoring of charities as part of its regular casework. It also has powers set out in the Charities Acts to conduct statutory investigations. However, opening a full statutory inquiry into a charity has a detrimental effect on the relationship with the regulator and can frustrate the intention to achieve a positive outcome. The Commission therefore began around 2007 to carry out an intermediate form of action described as regulatory compliance investigations. In 2010 it opened over 140 of these cases, compared to just three full statutory investigations. However, the legality of these actions was debatable as they lacked a statutory basis. A high-profile example was the Commission's report into The Atlantic Bridge, after which that body was dissolved in September 2011. The Commission announced in October 2011, in the context of cost-cutting and a re-focussing of its activities, that it would no longer carry out regulatory compliance investigations.[6][7]