Regulator now grades charities for compliance
The Charities Regulator has introduced a traffic-light system on the Register of Charities that will show more clearly and simply whether or not a charity has submitted its annual report on time.
Regulator Madeleine Delaney (pictured) said that the change was designed to highlight those charities that met their legal obligations, adding that the system was already in use in other countries.
A green symbol indicates the report has been submitted on time (within ten months of financial year-end).
An amber symbol indicates the report was submitted late, while a red symbol shows the charity has not submitted its annual report.
The regulator says that the system will allow charity trustees, donors, funders, and the public to quickly see if a charity is meeting its reporting obligations.
The system will not highlight if a charity has been on time or late submitting its annual report in previous years, but only applies after the system’s introduction this month.
Legal obligation
Submitting an annual report on time is a legal obligation for all charities.
Information from a charity’s annual report is displayed on its public record on the register. This makes annual reports critical to providing transparency and accountability to the public and funders while also ensuring the accuracy of the register, the regulator has said.
Targeted
The Charities Regulator is continuing a targeted compliance initiative to improve the rate of filing of annual reports by charities that are failing to meet their reporting obligations.
Enforcement action taken so far has resulted in a number of prosecutions and removals from the register for failure to file annual reports.