Charity Commission reminds charities to report serious incidents

The Charity Commission has issued an “alert” , stating it believes that serious incidents are being underreported, which prevents the Commission from being able to assess the true scale and nature of risks facing charities. The Commission is also concerned that failure to report serious incidents could put some charities and their work at risk, where the trustees need assistance to handle a serious incident.

An incident is “serious” and must be reported to the Charity Commission if it risks or results in significant loss of a charity’s money or assets, damage to a charity’s property or harm to a charity’s work, beneficiaries or reputation. The most common types of incidents reported include fraud, theft and confirmed safeguarding issues.

The alert makes it clear that the Commission’s regulatory response to a serious incident will reflect:

• Whether or not trustees made a serious incident report; and
• How promptly the serious incident report was made.

If trustees fail to act responsibly in relation to an incident (including failing to report at all, or not reporting promptly enough), the Commission may consider this to be mismanagement by the trustees and take regulatory action, particularly if further abuse or damage has arisen following the initial incident.