The Charity Commission has published a news story announcing it will no longer display documents received by post and email on the online register of charities, before retracting it and saying it is innacurate an hour later.
The Commission published a news story, sent an email and tweeted about its digital plans. But a spokesman contacted Civil Society News saying this was "published in error" and that "it is not the Commission's position".
The story was deleted from the Commission's website and a new update is expected tomorrow or early next week.
In a statement the Commission said: "We have been communicating our increasingly digital approach to charities and the wider public in line with our strategic plan. This allows us to be more responsive, more accessible and provides a better, faster service for charities. Whilst we are exploring ways in which we can encourage more charities to file their accounts digitally, the piece today was published in error and is incorrect.
"We will continue to communicate with charities about any changes and their differing needs. We will shortly be publishing a survey to seek feedback from the public and charities on our digital strategy.”
The deleted update
The Commission had said that any documents not received in digital format will no longer be displayed online, and that instead the Commission will only acknowledge that it has received them.
It said that these documents will still be filed internally by the Commission for its regulatory purposes, but any document requests from the public will “have to be met by the charity itself rather than by download from the register of charities”.
All registered charities with an income exceeding £25,000 and all charitable incorporated organisations must submit accounts and a trustees’ annual report (TAR) to the regulator.
The Commission had said that receiving documents by post and email is “costly in terms of time and money used on resources” and “can cause a delay for the charity in the processing of these accounts”.
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