New traffic light display: FAQs

A new traffic light display, which will indicate if a charity has submitted their accounts and reports to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland on time, is now live on the register of charities.

Under the traffic light system the public will now be able to see 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.

Please find below answers to some common queries around this update:

What will the new display show, and for which charities?

The new traffic light system indicates if a charity is:

When my status is marked as “Overdue: x days” and I submit my annual return, how long does it usually take for my status to change?

Your charity status will change the following day as soon as the system refreshes itself overnight – it will then be shown as in the example below.

Can the status be amended if there is a valid reason for the accounts being late, for example if the charity representative responsible is on unplanned leave?

All registered charities have a deadline to submit their annual reports and accounts to the Commission within ten months of their financial year end. This deadline is set in law under section 68(3)a.

This means that, unfortunately, the Commission is not able to amend a status once it has been flagged as overdue, even though you may have a valid reason for submitting late. To avoid any risk of submitting annual reporting information late, charities are encouraged not to wait until the last minute but to prepare in advance and submit all the required information in good time.

Why is this being introduced?

The update is being introduced following The Independent Review of Charity Regulation in Northern Ireland, which made a number of recommendations for the Department for Communities (Dfc) and the Commission to consider, in order to continue to build a robust and supportive regulatory framework for charities.

One of the recommendations (number 38), sets out a proposal to consider the introduction of a traffic light system on the register of charities. The aim is to allow greater differentiation between charities which are late in filing their accounts and reports, have defaulted or have submitted on time.