The Regulator for Charities in England and Wales
Crown database right 2001. The Central Register of Charities ("The Register") is subject to Crown database right. Please see the terms and conditions of use.
If you wish to obtain an electronic copy of the whole register or a substantial part of it, you should follow the Commission's procedure for obtaining an electronic copy.
The charity details available on the Register of Charities are updated on a regular basis as the Commission is informed of changes. This may mean that occasional inaccuracies occur. These are corrected as soon as they are drawn to our attention. The trustees of a charity have a legal duty to tell us about any changes to these details and, every year, they are sent a Register Check form, which enables them to check and update key information. If you see something that you think might be incorrect in relation to your charity, please let us know so we are able to correct the Register entry. Contact: 0845 300 0218.
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The following information is given for every charity on the Register:
In practice every charity registered with the Charity Commission is given a unique registration number. This is the number they must quote when raising funds.
This is the charity's legal name as set out in its governing document. It may be better known by a working name. Where the Commission has been informed about the use of that name it will be given, too.
These are any previous names by which the charity has been known.
These are any working names or acronyms which we have been told the Charity uses.
This shows the latest contact name and address that the Commission was given for the charity.
These are the latest numbers which the Charity has supplied.
These are the latest details which the charity has supplied.
This gives details of what the governing document is and when it was established. It does not contain the full text of the governing document. Copies of governing documents can be obtained from our Contact Centre. A charge may be made for copies of governing documents.
These describe what the charity has been legally set up to achieve. They do not necessarily describe all of the activities the charity carries out in order to achieve these objects.
This is the area that the charity can operate in as set out in its governing document.
This mirrors the area of benefit, but in standardised geographical terms, through the use of locality, district, county, continent or country etc. It will also reflect where the charity is currently operating. For example, a charity whose governing document specifies that its objects are to relieve the poor in the whole of England and Wales may in reality restrict its operations to certain inner city areas. The area of operation will reflect where those inner city areas actually are.
This gives the date the charity was registered with the Charity Commission. If the charity has been removed from the Register it will also include details of when this happened. When the Register was first computerised in 1991, the many thousands of charities that existed prior to 1960 were given a registration date of 1 January 1961. Most of these entries have now been updated to show the true date but a few still remain.
Where a charity has been wound-up and its funds have been transferred to another charity, the name and registration number of that charity will be given.
This is a system of classifying charities by reference to their purposes (what), beneficiaries (who) and method of operation (how). The Commission started to collect this information by asking charities to classify themselves during 2000. Charities are asked to check their classification every year. Many charities have not yet specified a classification for themselves.
Each year since the first statutory form was issued (AR6) all registered charities have been mailed an Annual Return form. The first forms were given a number AR6, AR7 and AR8 but more recently the forms have been named according to the charity's financial year covered by the return, i.e. AR2000 (AR00), AR2001 (AR01), AR2002 (AR02).
Charities with either gross income or total expenditure over £10,000 are required by law to complete the Annual Return form and return it to the Commission within 10 months of their financial year end. Charities with gross income or total expenditure over £10,000 must normally also submit a copy of their accounts within 10 months of their financial year end.
Charities under the £10,000 income/expenditure threshold are not required to submit their accounts to the Commission but are required to keep their Register details up to date. We ask charities with a gross income and total expenditure of £10,000 or less to complete only an Annual Information Update form.
This indicates whether the trustees of the charity have been incorporated. This is where the Commission has granted a certificate of incorporation to the trustees of a charity who have applied for one. The Commission can do this where they consider it to be in the interests of the charity. An incorporated body of trustees is able to act in their corporate name as a legal person. It does not affect the charity itself.
Some charities have subsidiaries. These subsidiary charities share the registration number of the main charity. Each is also given a subsidiary number. For example where a charity has 5 subsidiary charities they will be numbered chronologically 1 to 5. A subsidiary has objects that are compatible with those of the main charity but they often have their own governing document. Where a number of charities have been grouped together under the same registration number, the separate charities that make up that group are called constituents. Often constituent charities will have their own governing documents.
The people responsible under the charity's governing document for controlling the management and administration of the charity.
NOTE: The names of trustees shown for a charity are normally taken either from Annual Return/ Information Update forms returned to the Commission by the charity or from the declaration form supplied with an application for registration. There can be a delay of 4 - 6 weeks between receiving the information and it appearing on the Register. The name of an individual trustee will not be displayed unless we have a valid set of details for that trustee. This consists of full name, address and date of birth.
The names of trustees may also be supplied and updated by the charity using our Online Services which can be accessed from the Homepage.
It is the charity’s responsibility to ensure that they submit accurate information. However, we recognise that the list displayed may include duplicate names. This may be because trustees have the same full name or it may be the result of different versions of the trustees’ name being submitted in the past. The Commission has an ongoing policy of "data cleansing" and is endeavouring to keep duplications to a minimum.
The names of trustees and the principal address of a charity are required to be included in the Annual Report of every charity. However, in some cases disclosing the name of a trustee may place that person at risk. Where there is a risk of personal danger, the Commission will grant a dispensation to that person so that their name can be removed from the Annual Report. The dispensation also covers the disclosure of that name on the Register of Charities. For similar reasons the principal address of a charity may be withheld, although a contact address is always made available. Telephone our Contact Centre (0845 300 0218) for information about how to apply for a dispensation.