Have you received a letter from the Commission?

The trustees of around 150 charities will receive a letter from the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland this week, to highlight how the new traffic light display could impact their charity – unless they act soon.

The new display, which is expected to go live on the register of charities later this year, will indicate if a charity has submitted their accounts and reports to the Commission on time or late, and by how many days they are overdue if not submitted at all. Charities will be marked as shown in the picture below.

This is a major change to the register display and, once introduced, any charity which misses their submission deadline will immediately be flagged as amber or red – which may cause their supporters, service users and the public to ask why.

And, with some charities already overdue in submitting the required information, or due to submit within the next three months, their register entry could potentially go amber or red when the display goes live.

To ensure this does not happen, letters have been issued to the trustees of those charities, highlighting the display and encouraging them to take action to submit their accounts and reports either by their deadline or as soon as possible. If the charities in question submit before the traffic light display goes live, they will avoid being marked as late (amber) or in default (red).

Further information on the new traffic light system is available online here. The date on which the new display will go live will be announced on the Commission’s website soon.

The Commission has produced new guidance on the annual monitoring return. This is a practical guide that sets out what you need to have to hand before commencing the return, and only takes about 10 minutes to read. ARR05 How to complete the Annual Monitoring Return – 10 minute guide can be found on the Commission’s website here.

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