Changes to the Charity Register and Help with Charity Reporting

The charity register has changed, the status information on individual charities has been removed.  Prior to Monday 10th November,  a number of charities on the register had been marked  as “In Default, others were marked as “Due Documents Received Late”.   Those that had registered in the last few years were marked as “Recently Registered” and the vast majority were listed as “Up-To-Date”.   Since Monday 10th November, all of those statuses have been removed.   

The decision to remove status from the register is due to a legal judgment.  This judgement ruled that all Commission orders and decisions must be made by the Board of Commissioners or a committee with delegated authority that included Commissioners, and not Commission staff.  All charities registered prior to the end of May 2019 were registered by Commission staff and so they are no longer technically registered.  However, they are still charities in law as they were formed for charitable purposes and the message from the Charity Commission is continue as normal. 

We would recommend that Charities continue to complete their annual monitoring return and upload their accounts, trustees’ annual report and independent examiner’s report (or auditor’s report).  We believe that this is important as funders and other stakeholders  will want to see up-to-date entries.   

Online services are open and available for charities to complete their annual monitoring return and upload their required reports and accounts.  Online services can be accessed here: 

https://apps.charitycommissionni.org.uk/outreach/workbench.ofml 

However,  the Commission is no longer sending out reminders to charities.  Prior to the legal judgement, the Commission reminded trustees of the deadline by which they should complete their annual monitoring return.  

Under normal circumstances, charities had 10 months from the end of their financial year by which to complete their annual monitoring return and upload required accounts and reports.  For recently registered charities, this is 10 months from the end of their first full financial year.    

As part of a project funded by Department for Communities, NICVA and RCN are supporting trustees with charity reporting, helping to build their capacity.  More information can be found at the link: https://www.nicva.org/services/charity-annual-reporting 

Please contact Michele Crilly ([email protected]) on 028 90 877777 if you are in the following council areas: Antrim and Newtownabbey, Ards and North Down,  Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon,  Belfast, Causeway Coast and Glens, Derry City and Strabane, Lisburn and Castlereagh and Newry, Mourne and Down.   If you are in Mid and East Antrim, Mid Ulster or Fermanagh and Omagh Council areas, contact Kathryn Kerr ([email protected]itynetwork.org) on  028 8676 6670.  Michele and Kathryn can help you with charity reporting and can provide a limited number of free training sessions on the topic.