William Shawcross, chair of the Charity Commission, has suggested that charities with an income of more than £100,000 should have to contribute to the regulator's funding.
Speaking at a public meeting in Manchester yesterday Shawcross said: “One of the things that we are considering, given the fall in funding from the Treasury, is whether or not we should ask charities – big charities, not small charities, starting with charities over £100,000 - to contribute towards the financing of their regulator.”
In 2007/08 the Commission had an annual budget of £32.6m; by 2015/16 it will have fallen to £20.2m.
Shawcross said that the Commission was similar to the solicitors' regulator which is paid for by its members and said that he has spoken to some charities about the idea and they are “open” to it.
More active regulator
Once again Shawcross reminded charities that the Commission is primarily there to regulate them, and said: “We are the policeman of the charity sector – we are not the stasi in any way at all – we are the friendly policeman.”
He said that 2013 had been a difficult year for the Commission, which had been on a "rollercoaster ride", and that it is now focusing more on the regulatory side of its work. He revealed that so far this year it has opened 64 inquiries, compared to 15 last year, and used its powers 540 times, compared to 216 last year.
“This doesn't mean that the charitable sector is getting worse in anyway, it's just that we are becoming more vigilant in order to protect the reputation of the sector for the sake of you and the sake of the public.”
He added that he had hoped the government would provide the Commission with further powers before the end of this Parilament, but "unfortunately they decided that they didn't have time for that".
However he expects the Protection of Charities Bill that was announced in the Queen's speech "will be ready to be enacted into law after the next election by whoever is then in government".
Number of new charities up 16 per cent
Shawcross described the Register of Charities as “extraordinarily lively” with around 5,000 new charities each year, and the same number dropping off the Register.
“The figure has actually gone up this year by about 16 per cent,” he noted. “But we're not quite sure why that is.”
Class inquiry has stamped out late filing
Shawcross is confident that the Commission's class inquiry into late filing charities, which started in September 2013 and has so far seen 64 sets of accounts filed by charities that were investigated as part of it, has been a success.
Shawcross said: "Class inquiry has had a very good effect, they have all caught up with that very quickly and I think that sort of defaulting will come to a pretty quick end."
