THE REGISTER OF CHARITIES

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Copyright statement relating to the Register of Charities

The Central Register of Charities ("The Register") is subject to Crown database right 2001. You may:

1. access the Register and download insubstantial extracts from it onto electronic, magnetic, optical or similar storage media. The repeated and systematic downloading of insubstantial parts of the contents of the Register may amount to the downloading of a substantial part of those contents;

2. download the contents of the Register for the purpose of illustration for teaching or research, providing there is no commercial purpose;

3. download all or a substantial part of the contents of the Register containing factual information of any description for any purpose which does not involve making all or a substantial part of those contents available to the public by any means.

These are the permitted uses. Any other proposed use of the Register and its contents would require a licence from HMSO. You can apply for a licence to the Licensing Division of HMSO, St Clements House, 2 - 16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ, Fax 01603 723000 or e-mail hmsolicensing@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk .

About the Register of Charities

How would you like to search

Search for charities by name
Search for charities by charity object or name keywords  
Search for charities by the area in which they operate
Search for a charity by its registered number

NOTES FOR USERS:

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: 0870 333 0123.

Charity Registration Number
In practice every charity registered with the Charity Commission is given a unique registration number.

Main/Group Charity Name
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.

Old Names
These are any previous names by which the charity has been known.

Working Names
These are any working names or acronyms which we have been told the Charity uses.

Charity Correspondent
This shows the latest contact name and address that the Commission was given for the charity.

Telephone Number/Fax Number
These are the latest numbers which the Charity has supplied.

Email Address/Website Address
These are the latest details which the charity has supplied.

Governing Document
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.

Objects
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.

Area of benefit
This is the area that the charity can operate in as set out in its governing document.

Area of operation
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 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.

Registration History
This gives the date the charity was registered with the Charity Commission. Where appropriate, the Register also includes entries for organisations that have been removed from it.

When searching the Register for a particular charity or group of charities you can specify whether you wish to include or exclude removed charities from your search. The reason why the charity was removed will also be given. For example if it ceased to exist and was wound-up by its trustees it will say, "(ceased to exist)". 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.

Funds Transferred To
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.

Classification
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.

Mailing and Submissions
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).

Since 2003, we have mailed Annual Returns and Trustee Update Forms to all charities for completion. 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. We ask for this information to be submitted together with the Trustee Update Form.

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 Part A of the Annual Return and submit this information with the Trustee Update Form.

Assistance on completing these forms can be found on our Annual Returns pages or by telephoning our Contact Centre on 0870 3330123.

Some gaps may appear on the tables if charities have changed their financial year end. The date shown against return received is the date the information was input onto the Commission's system which is normally within a maximum of 5 days of receipt.

The Commission is committed to ensuring that charities observe the rules on submission. We are pleased that overall submission rates continue to improve, but still not enough charities are meeting their 10 month deadline. If charities fail to send their financial information to us on time, details of the charity will appear on our list of charities in Default of Submission of Accounts/Returns and our Enforcement team will pursue outstanding documents. The following could also happen to charities that persistently fail to submit accounts and returns:

• a Charity Commission inquiry - with the inquiry report findings being displayed on the Charity Commission website;

• prosecution;

• loss of public support: - we are raising awareness amongst members of the public, licensing authorities and funding bodies that a charity that has persistently failed to submit its accounts is unlikely to be a well-managed, efficient organisation worthy of continued support.

Charities should take seriously their responsibility to comply with these obligations. Transparency and openness in the use of funds helps to underpin public confidence, and allows funders and supporters to see how funds are used in delivering the activities of charities. The Commission considers that the inclusion of charities' mailing history on our website will enable people with an interest in a particular charity to see how effective it has been in meeting its legal requirements.

Incorporation
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.

Subsidiaries/Constituents
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.

Trustees
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 taken from trustee detail update forms returned to the Commission by the charity. These forms are issued once each year and the details entered onto our database. At present we do not routinely update these details other than through the update form process.

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

Dispensation
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 (0870 3330123) for information about how to apply for a dispensation.

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