The Charity Commission has hired Sheffield Hallam University to examine the quality of charities’ reporting of their public benefit.

The regulator revealed that it had commissioned the university to carry out the research in response to a question posed at last night’s annual public meeting of the Commission.

The Commission was asked what it was doing to continue to measure public benefit of charities on the register, “particularly fee-charging charities”.

Rosie Chapman (pictured), the Commission’s executive director of policy and effectiveness, said Sheffield Hallam had been commissioned to “look at the quality of reporting against the public benefit requirement”. The regulator plans to publish the findings of the research later this financial year.

John Wood, a Charity Commission board member, added that it was “not just for the Commission to monitor how people are reporting public benefit”.  He said the Commission had already played its part in raising awareness of the requirement and that it was important now that members of the public monitor what charities are doing in terms of their public benefit and public benefit reporting.