The Charity Commission will publish a new online register by the end of May which will display more information about charities, including whether their trustees are paid.

The register will also include information such as whether its accounts have been qualified and whether it is a member of the Fundraising Standards Board, Commission chief executive Sam Younger said today.

The new register will have a more flexible and detailed search function, and will allow researchers to gather more detailed information about individual charities. The Commission will launch the new version in a beta format, and will introduce changes in response to feedback from charities.

Information which will be available on the register in the future will include information collected in the annual return or currently held by the Commission. This is likely to include whether a charity:

•    Claims gift aid
•    Is insolvent, in administration, or subject to enforcement action
•    Is a member of the Fundraising Standards Board
•    Raises funds from the public
•    Has a trading subsidiary
•    Pays trustees
•    Makes grants
•    Is regulated by or registered with other regulatory bodies
•    Has policies for areas including executive pay, complaints, and vulnerable beneficiaries

Sam Younger, chief executive of the Commission, said today in a speech at a Govtoday event in London that the new register would allow researchers to obtain more information about charities.

“It will be much easier to pull down information from the Charity Commission register,” he said. “We already have six million views a year, and we expect that to increase with this new information.”