Charity Commission consults on proposals to require charities to declare campaigning spending and government income in their annual returns

In June, the Charity Commission started an eight-week consultation into proposals to collect more information on charities in their annual returns, including suggestions that all charities with incomes over £50,000 would have to declare all money they spent on campaigning, and all money received from the government.

NCVO, Acevo and the Charity Finance Group have all heavily criticised Charity Commission proposals, which they consider go beyond its remit. They also criticised the proposals as they considered that collecting such information would place an unnecessary burden on charities, particularly, because “campaigning spending” was not effectively defined in the consultation.

The Charity Commission is now considering the responses to the proposals and it is expected that the outcome of the consultation will be announced in October.