About the Register of Charities

The Register of Charities contains details of registered charities in England and Wales. This means that such charities:

• have most of their assets held in England and/or Wales;
• have all or a majority of their trustees normally resident in England and/or Wales; or
• if the charity is set up as a company, is incorporated in England or Wales.

As long as the above apply, it is not necessary for the charity's work to be carried out in England or Wales. There are also some types of charity that are not required to register. Further details about these can be found in our leaflets CC21 Starting and Registering a Charity or by contacting any of our offices.

It is our job to register organisations which are charitable in law. We encourage people who are thinking about setting up a charity to consider whether they should join up with an existing charity rather than create a new one, but we are not able to insist. We have a responsibility to the public to ensure that we only register organisations which are established in good faith to further charitable and no other objects.

To work out whether an organisation is charitable we look at what it has been set up to achieve (its "objects"), which are described in its "governing document" and, if necessary, how it will achieve it. If we are satisfied that the objects are exclusively charitable, using existing legal principles we will normally register the organisation as a charity and give it a registered number. Some charities are not allowed to register, and in some cases registration is optional. For further information, please see our Operational Guidance OG57 Exempt Charities.

After an organisation has been entered onto the Register of Charities we continue to monitor its activities by means of the annual returns and accounts which trustees of charities with a gross annual income or total expenditure over £10,000, have to send to us. All charities (except those which are not allowed to register) are subject to our supervisory and investigative powers.

The information on the Register is an extract of what charities must legally provide. It describes what charities have been set up to achieve (their "objects") rather than what they do to achieve them.