What the Charity Commission Can’t Do (And What to Do Instead)

I got asked an interesting question today. A local sports club had failed to file its accounts for a long period, and then made mistakes when it did – despite having a solicitor as its chair. “Shouldn’t we just report them to the Charity Commission?” I was asked.

It’s a fair question, and one that comes up a lot. But before you pick up the phone to the Commission, it’s worth understanding what they can actually do – because in a case like this, reporting them might not get you very far.

What you should consider doing first

Late accounts are a matter of public record – you can check a charity’s filing history on the Charity Commission’s register in a couple of minutes. If the accounts have now been filed, even late and even with mistakes, the Commission is unlikely to intervene. Late filing is common, and the Commission’s usual response is a nudge to trustees rather than formal action.

My advice would be to raise it directly with the club’s trustees first. Ask why the accounts were late, what went wrong, and what they’re doing to make sure it doesn’t happen again. If the chair is a solicitor, they should understand the importance of getting this right, and a direct, reasonable conversation is often the fastest way to get a proper answer.

If the trustees won’t engage, or the accounts remain wrong and uncorrected, that’s a different situation – and one where a report to the Commission starts to make more sense.

What the Commission itself says it can’t do

The Commission is a regulator, not a general complaints service. Its own published guidance sets out clear limits on its role. In summary, the Commission:

• Cannot prosecute anyone, though it may ask others to bring a prosecution
• Usually cannot tell trustees what decisions to make, and cannot overturn lawful decisions – even unpopular ones. Trustees typically have a range of options open to them, and it isn’t the Commission’s job to weigh up which one they should have picked
• Cannot determine who a charity’s trustees are
• Doesn’t act as a complaints service on behalf of complainants
• Isn’t the lead regulator for fundraising – that’s the Fundraising Regulator, for charities based in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Won’t investigate individual safeguarding allegations, decide whether they’re true, or bring safeguarding prosecutions. Its focus is on whether trustees had the right policies and procedures in place. Safeguarding concerns involving criminal behaviour should go to the police

In practice, this means the Commission usually won’t take action on:

• Disagreements with trustee decisions that were made lawfully and within the charity’s governing document
• Poor service from a charity
• Contract or employment disputes
• Internal disagreements where properly appointed trustees are in post and acting within the law – it’s the trustees’ job to sort these out
• Issues that don’t pose a serious risk to the charity, its assets or its beneficiaries
• Matters that fall under another regulator
• Situations where legal proceedings are already under way

The Commission gives a helpful example: a charity’s AGM should have been held in October but was delayed a month because a trustee was ill. Technically that breaches the governing document, but if it caused no real problems, the Commission wouldn’t expect to get involved.

Raising Concerns with the Charity Commission – the bottom line

The Commission exists to deal with serious risk – not to referee every disagreement or mistake. For most concerns, the right first step is to raise the matter with the trustees directly. That gives them the chance to explain, or to put things right. If that doesn’t work, or the concern is more serious than a filing slip-up, the Commission’s guidance also points to a list of other organisations that may be better placed to help.

This is also exactly the kind of situation where having good governance processes in place, and a clear paper trail of decisions and correspondence, makes life easier for everyone. Platforms like Governance360 are built to help trustees keep on top of filing deadlines, decisions and records, so questions like this one are far less likely to come up in the first place.

Sources

• Charity Commission, Raising a concern with the Charity Commission (CC47), GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/raising-a-concern-with-the-charity-commission-cc47/raising-a-concern-with-the-charity-commission-cc47

Last updated: 3 July 2026 Reading time: 4 minutes

Some of the research and drafting for this article may have been produced with assistance from Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. Content is then reviewed, edited and augmented with the experience of the Governance360 team before publication. Sources are provided at the foot of this article so you can verify the information directly.