The Regulator for Charities in England and Wales
Welcome to the Review of the Register pages.
These pages offer you a chance to comment on the Review and the various Review consultation documents as they are published.
Review Consultation Documents and Publications
1. The Charity Commission's aim is to give the public confidence in the integrity of charity. The Register of Charities is a list of the charities set up in England and Wales, which we supervise. We are also responsible for keeping it up to date; it currently contains details of over 180,000 charities.
2. The understanding of what is legally charitable has continued to evolve since the Register was first created over 35 years ago. Consequently, there are almost certainly organisations on the Register, which most people would not now regard as charitable, and organisations not on it that perhaps they might.
3. We are therefore taking a long, hard look at the Register to consider, within the law, whether those organisations which currently benefit from charitable status should continue to do so, and whether there is scope to develop further the boundaries of charitable status.
4. We are conducting the Review with the help of those both in and outside the sector who respond to our consultations. It is expected to continue for several years.
5. The work is underpinned by our publication The Review of the Register of Charities (RR1) which gives the background to the Review and which sets those characteristics which determine the charitable status of an organisation and which will inform the decisions made as part of the Review. Although not directly linked to the Review we have also published The Hallmarks of a Well-Run Charity (CC60), where we have put together those characteristics which we think best describe the attributes of a well- run charity, but upon which charitable status is not dependant. It includes those areas in which the Commission has an interest in promoting high standards. Together these publications illustrate the distinctive character of charities.
6. With such a large number of charities on the Register, it is not practical for us to examine each one's charitable status separately, so we are tackling the Review by looking at particular groups of organisations in turn. We will normally issue a Consultation Document on each of the areas under review, setting out our recommendations and opinions. The latest consultation documents are to be found on this site. To view other consultation documents issued by the Commission but which are not part of the review of the register please see our consultations page.
7. Ultimately our aim is to produce guidelines on each area so as to help determine the future treatment and "charitability" of each type of organisation.
8. The first of these guidelines Promotion of Urban and Rural Regeneration (RR2) and Charities for the Relief of Unemployment (RR3) were published on March 18th 1999. Others will appear on our our website as they are released.
9. The key premise of the Review is that it should be conducted openly and with as much input from the voluntary sector and the public as possible. Details of where to send comments will be found in each consultation document.