What to expect if you contact us about a charity

We consider and keep on record all concerns about charities and decide what steps to take but will not take action in every case.

When making our decisions we consider the issue, the risk involved to the charity and its beneficiaries and the likely impact of our involvement. 

We focus our energy and resources on the greatest risks and on issues that are in our view most likely to undermine public trust and confidence.

We can only take action where it is evidence based and proportionate to do so.

We will consider the information you have provided along with any other information we have about the charity or organisation concerned and decide whether we need to open an inquiry.  Even if we decide we do not need to open an inquiry immediately, we will retain the information supplied for 5 years to help us risk assess any additional information we receive about the charity. How we deal with information we store is explained in our Privacy Policy and GDPR Guidance.

We encourage people to submit concerns to us about charities and appreciate it when they do so. We will treat any information supplied to us as intelligence and decide whether that intelligence amounts to a possible regulatory issue. We act in the interest of the public as a whole and not on behalf of individuals or groups. Therefore following acknowledgement that we have received your concern, we will usually only contact you if we require further information from you.

If you have shared information with us about a charity we will not disclose your identity to the charity trustees unless you have given us permission to do so, or we are required to do so by a Court. This is because it is important that people can share information with us expressing concern about charities in confidence. However, in some inquiries the nature of the issues involved may make it obvious who has raised a concern with us.

If you share information with us about a charity but do not wish to provide us with your name or contact details, we will still consider the information provided but we may be constrained in what we are able to do because we will be unable to contact you for further information that may be required.

If you are an employee of a charity that you have a concern about you may find it helpful to read our Whistleblowing Guidance that explains about the protection that paid workers have when they report such concerns.

In some inquiry cases, where we use our enforcement powers, or where in our view it is in the public interest, we will publish an inquiry report on our website explaining what has happened, any action we have taken and any learning points for the rest of the charitable sector.