More than half of newly-registered charities are involved in service delivery, compared with 34 per cent of all charities on the register, the chair of the Charity Commission revealed at a Westminister meeting last night.

Speaking at a meeting organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group on civil society and volunteering, Dame Suzi Leather revealed that 59 per cent of charities which had registered with the Commission between April and September this year had already won public sector contracts. 

The meeting saw Dame Suzi, Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, and Sir Nicholas Deakin, who is part of a new charity sector independence panel, speak on the issue of charity sector independence.

The panel identified that the debate on charities’ independence too often focused on organisations which drew a large proportion of their income from the state.

“My attitude is that it depends on how a charity governs its affairs," said Dame Suzi. "And it’s not just about the state – what about when a rich philanthropist has strong views on what a charity does with the money he donates?"

Sir Stuart agreed that other actors affected charities’ independence, particularly the private sector.  But he did note that the contractual relationship between the state and voluntary sector explained much of the growth of the sector’s income over the past years.

“The impact on independence depends on the funding relationship,” he said. “With 200 contracts you’ll have robust independence. With one contract I suspect there is a subtle level of self-censorship. But no one will admit it for fear of losing contracts.”

Later in the event, Dame Suzi said the Charity Commission’s first snapshot of newly-registered charities provided evidence for Sir Stuart's views about charities’ relationship with the state.

“Fifty-nine per cent of newly-registered charities do public service delivery,” she said.

The Charity Commission has begun a series of bulletins which will focus on the trends among newly-registered charities. Its first bulleting focused on April to September 2011 where just over 3,000 charities joined the register.

It found over half (59 per cent) of newly registered charities provide services. This is a higher proportion than all charities currently on the register (34 per cent).