Commission does not record charity complaint totals

07 Oct 2013 News

The Charity Commission keeps no running totals of the number and type of complaints it receives about each charity, it has admitted in response to a Freedom of Information request for complaints data.

Charity Commission Liverpool

The Charity Commission keeps no running totals of the number and type of complaints it receives about each charity, it has admitted in response to a Freedom of Information request for complaints data.

During the summer, the regulator was asked by a charity sector supplier to provide information on how many complaints it had received about the Dove Trust, which operated the Charity Giving website before it was closed down by the Commission.

The individual asked: “Please can you advise whether the Charity Commission keeps a record of all complaints against charities and the actions taken by the Commission in each case? Although the request is in relation to any complaints made against the Dove Trust and its subsidiaries/trading brands we would like to explore the wider picture.”

He requested data on the name of each charity that was subject to a complaint, the date of each complaint made, and the type of action taken by the Commission such as ‘no action taken’ or ‘statutory inquiry’.

In response, the Commission said it only kept records dating back five years and that because some of the information requested would not be in the public domain, it may be necessary to submit a Freedom of Information request.

But once he did so, the Commission said it could not supply the information requested.

No running total of complaints

Rob Davies, a senior case officer at the Commission, wrote back: “When we receive written correspondence it is usual for us to open a case and record that we have received an email or letter either about the Commission or about a charity.

“We do not, however, keep a running total of the number of complaints we have had for each charity.

Davies said that just because a piece of correspondence is entitled ‘complaint’ does not mean it would be recorded as such. In the year to 31 March 2013 the Commission received and assessed 51,312 emails and 14,968 letters, and Davies said a number of these would have been complaints about charities or the Commission but the Commission’s electronic records system would prevent extraction of the information requested “without significant resource and manual checks”.

He added: “While the Commission will hold data on complaints we have received there is no specific internal records management ‘code’ on our electronic database systems to easily identify and extract data for the number of complaints handled.”

He could not provide an overall figure for the total number of complaints received in the last five years.

Can extract complaint numbers – but with caveats

However, a Commission spokeswoman told civilsociety.co.uk that it would be possible to extract the number of complaints received about a particular charity, if such a request was received under the Freedom of Information Act – though the data must be read with certain caveats.  For instance, a complaint letter signed by 100 people would be recorded as one complaint.

But after civilsociety.co.uk submitted an FOI request to obtain the number of complaints received about the Dove Trust, the Commission said it could not disclose this information because the Trust is currently subject to a statutory inquiry and so falls under an exemption in the FOI Act.

Complaint label not an indicator of regulatory concern

Asked whether the Commission thought its existing system was adequate for keeping track of which charities might cause regulatory concerns, the regulator told civilsociety.co.uk that the number of cases that come in labelled ‘complaint’ cannot be taken as an indication of regulatory concern about the charity in question.

Indeed, she said, many of the most serious investigations carried out do not follow from cases marked as ‘complaints’.
She conceded though, that the Commission’s existing records system did not allow for the creation of a “league table of the most complained-about charities”.

Commission updating systems

The Commission is currently in the process of updating its case-management systems, in order to help it better interrogate its systems, but the spokeswoman said this update would still not allow it to keep running totals of complaints received.

The upgrade is focused on improving reporting rather than monitoring, she said.

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