{"id":95251,"date":"2018-09-03T10:48:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-03T10:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=73caa1595deaf1b126a2e0833ebf207a"},"modified":"2018-09-03T10:48:44","modified_gmt":"2018-09-03T10:48:44","slug":"press-release-charities-must-better-communicate-to-the-public-through-their-annual-reports-and-accounts-urges-regulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=95251","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Charities must better communicate to the public through their annual reports and accounts, urges regulator"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The Charity Commission has today published the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/accounts-monitoring-charity-commission\">results<\/a> of its latest monitoring reviews of charity trustees\u2019 annual reports and accounts. The findings reveal a modest improvement in the quality of public reporting, but the regulator says that too many charities are still falling short in this area.<\/p>\n<p>Public benefit reporting plays a key role in providing transparency so that the public can understand exactly what a charity does and how their donations are being used.<\/p>\n<p>As part of its proactive monitoring work, the Commission scrutinised a random sample of 106 charity trustees\u2019 annual reports and accounts filed with it to assess:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>how charities are meeting the public benefit reporting standards<\/li>\n<li>whether the accounts meet readers\u2019 needs, including a separate sample of \u201csmall charities\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id=\"telling-your-story-well-public-benefit-reporting-by-charities\">Telling your story well: Public benefit reporting by charities<\/h2>\n<p>Trustees have a legal responsibility to comply with the Commission\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/public-benefit-reporting-pb3\">guidance on public benefit reporting<\/a>. All registered charities must publish a trustees\u2019 annual report, setting out the charity\u2019s activities for the public benefit.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission\u2019s review found that 51% of the charities reviewed demonstrated a clear understanding of the public benefit reporting requirement \u2013 a 5% improvement from last year\u2019s result.<\/p>\n<p>The majority of annual reports also included key aspects of public benefit reporting, with 71% explaining who benefitted from the charity\u2019s activities, and 62% including a public benefit statement.<\/p>\n<p>Some trustees had expanded their statement to explain why they believed their charity\u2019s activities provided public benefit, whilst others discussed the difference that they had made, particularly to beneficiaries.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"do-charity-and-small-charity-annual-reports-and-accounts-meet-the-readers-needs\">Do charity and small charity annual reports and accounts meet the reader\u2019s needs?<\/h2>\n<p>The Commission examined whether the charities\u2019 trustees\u2019 annual reports and accounts as a whole met readers\u2019 needs, based on a range of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/accounts-monitoring-charities-annual-reports-and-accounts-meeting-the-readers-needs\">criteria<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For the sample of charities with incomes over \u00a325,000, the Commission found that 74% of the trustees\u2019 annual reports and accounts reviewed were of acceptable quality, meeting the basic benchmark set by the Commission.<\/p>\n<p>The most common reason for inadequate reporting was that the trustees\u2019 annual report did not explain the charitable activities the charity had carried out.<\/p>\n<p>For the sample of small charities, the Commission found that 64% of the charities provided trustees\u2019 annual reports and accounts of acceptable quality, meeting the regulator\u2019s basic benchmark. The main reason for inadequate reporting was that the charity failed to provide one or both of the trustees\u2019 annual report and the accounts.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission has provided regulatory guidance to 89 charities included in the reviews in order to help the trustees improve the quality of future trustees\u2019 annual reports and accounts.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"nigel-davies-head-of-accountancy-services-at-the-charity-commission-for-england-and-wales-said\">Nigel Davies, Head of Accountancy Services at the Charity Commission for England and Wales said:<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cOur research into trust and confidence in charities shows that the public no longer give charities the benefit of the doubt; they want evidence that charities make a difference when using their money. Public reporting is an opportunity for charities to tell their story and explain to the public what they do and how they use charitable funds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProducing a trustees\u2019 annual report and accounts is not an administrative box-ticking exercise. It is a chance to show how your charity is making an impact and how you are delivering on your core purpose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s results show that too many charities are still not meeting very basic standards when it comes to making key information available to the public. I am encouraged to see that an increasing number of trustees recognise the value of public benefit reporting, but there is clearly more work to be done across the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The full reports are available on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/collections\/accounts-monitoring-charity-commission#reports-published-in-2018\">GOV.UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ends<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"notes-to-editors\">Notes to editors<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>The Commission\u2019s research into public trust and confidence in charities was published on 11 July 2018 and is available on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/regulator-publishes-new-research-into-factors-the-public-associate-with-trustworthy-charities\">GOV.UK<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The Charity Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/charity-commission\/about\">about us<\/a> page on GOV.UK.<\/li>\n<li>Search for charities on our <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/apps.charitycommission.gov.uk\/showcharity\/registerofcharities\/RegisterHomePage.aspx\">check charity<\/a> tool.<\/li>\n<li>To assess whether small charities accounts met readers\u2019 needs, the Commission included a separate sample of 110 small charities, those with incomes less than \u00a325,000, who are not required to routinely file their trustees\u2019 annual report and accounts with the regulator (except for Charitable Incorporated Organisations)<\/li>\n<li>In addition to producing an annual report, all registered charities must prepare accounts and, where the charity\u2019s income is over \u00a325,000, arrange for them to be scrutinised through an audit or independent examination. They must also file their set of accounts with the regulator.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_2196\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Press office<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:pressenquiries@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk\">pressenquiries@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Press enquiries &#8211; office hours <\/span><br \/>\n              0300 065 2123\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Press enquiries &#8211; out of hours<\/span><br \/>\n              07785 748787\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charity Commission publishes results of accounts monitoring reviews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}