New, intuitive concerns about a charity form now live

Blog by James Walsh, Enquiries Manager

It has been an important start to the 2023-24 year for us in the enquiries team at the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, as our new and improved version of the online form for submitting a concern about a charity is now live.

A concern, also known as a complaint, about a charity can range from a minor issue where self-regulatory guidance from the Commission can provide the charity trustees with the right advice on how to fix things, through to the most serious of cases which require the opening of a statutory inquiry by Commissioners.

As well as concerns, we also deal with matters of material significance (MOMS) and serious incident reports (SIRs).  MOMS are issues which independent examiners and auditors must report to the Commission should they encounter them while reviewing the accounts of a charity. A serious incident is an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in, or risks, a significant loss of charity money or assets, damage to charity property and/or harm to the work of the charity, its beneficiaries or reputation.

During 2022-23, the enquiries team received a total of 227 cases, which can be broken down into:

• Concerns received: 137
• SIRs received: 75
• MOMs received: 15

The new form - which is live on our website here – will support charity trustees, volunteers, members of the public, charity beneficiaries or a member of the charity’s staff in bringing concerns to our attention. It now also allows charity trustees and auditors or independent examiners to relay serious incident reports and matters of material significance to us.

The new form brings a number of benefits for those submitting a concern. It aims to be simpler to use, guiding those filling it in to the relevant sections for their specific issue or concern and being clear on what information they need to provide as evidence.

From the regulator’s point of view, it will help the Commission to better understand the issues being raised, to identify the risks and to manage our wider caseload of concerns about charities, serious incidents and matters of material significance.

The form also asks those submitting the concern to input a postcode and address for the charity they wish to alert us to. This is to ensure we only receive correspondence related to those organisations within our jurisdiction and in turn allows us to focus our resources where risks are highest. Overall, this will help us better target our resources in a proportionate manner to ensure that the most serious issues are addressed.

Further information on the types of issues we deal with is below.

Concerns About Charities

If you have a concern that you have been unable to resolve with the charity concerned and think that it meets the criteria for those that we will take up as outlined in our Concerns about charities guidance, then please complete the confidential, online Concern about a charity: form available here.

Serious incident reporting

The responsibility for reporting serious incidents rests with the charity’s trustees. In practice, some charities may delegate this task to someone else within the charity, such as an employee or the charity’s professional advisers.

Where a charity identifies an issue it thinks meets the criteria as outlined in our Serious incident reporting: a guide for charity trustees guidance, then please complete the confidential, online Concern about a charity: form available here.

Matters of material significance

Matters of material significance are issues which independent examiners and auditors must report to the Commission should they encounter them while reviewing the accounts of a charity. Reportable matters  are outlined in our Matters of material significance: a guide for auditors and independent examiners. Where a reportable matter is identified, then please complete the confidential, online Concern about a charity: form available here.