Have you received an email from the Commission?

Northern Ireland’s charity regulator is urging charities to ensure their trustee contact details, as held by the Commission, are accurate and up to date ahead of the new Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 coming into force.

As part of its work to prepare charities for the changes which will be brought in by the new Act, the Commission is this week issuing emails to some 7,000 charity contacts asking them to ensure their trustees’ postal, email and mobile contact details, which are securely and confidentially held by the regulator, are accurate and up to date. They must do this as soon as possible and before Wednesday 23 March 2022 at the latest.

The call to “check your details” is because the Commission will be contacting charity trustees in the coming weeks to provide an update on the new Act, briefing them on any new legal requirements which may impact directly on their charity. If a trustee’s contact details are out of date, they may miss an important update or information regarding their legal duties around annual reporting.

The regulator intends to use post and email to provide updates on the new Act directly to charity trustees, with text message reminders issued to trustees regarding their charity’s annual reporting deadline each year. Charities can check and update trustee details securely via the Commission's Online services portal here. 

The updates issued by the Commission will be for information only, and trustees will not be asked to submit any personal information by email, post or text. Any changes to trustee contact details should only be made via the Online services portal on the Commission’s website.

You can find out more about the new Act, and the changes it will bring in, including requirements around annual reporting and refreshed appeal rights for decision made prior to the end of May 2019, on the Commission’s website here.