Reporting of serious incidents

Charities are being reminded of the need to report serious incidents to the Charity Commission, the regulator of charities in England and Wales.

In an alert issued on Tuesday 2 September, the regulator states it believes serious incidents are underreported, preventing the Commission from assessing the true scale and nature of risks facing charities and putting some charities and their work at risk where the trustees need assistance to handle them.

The Commission defines an incident as serious if it risks or results in significant loss of a charity's money or assets, damage to a charity's property or harm to a charity's work, beneficiaries or reputation. The most common types of incidents reported include fraud, theft and confirmed safeguarding issues.

In 2013-14, 1,280 serious incidents were reported by charities to the Commission. While this represents an increase on the previous year, with 971 incidents were reported in 2012-13, the regulator states its case work continues to find serious incidents that should have been reported but were not.

The alert explains that the Commission's regulatory response to a problem will reflect whether or not trustees made a serious incident report and how promptly they do so. If trustees fail to act responsibly in relation to an incident, including failing to report or not reporting promptly when the incident occurred, the Commission may consider this to be mismanagement and take regulatory action, particularly if further abuse or damage has arisen following the initial incident.

The alert also explains that the potential reputational damage of an adverse incident can be mitigated if trustees are able to demonstrate that they acted responsibly in handling the problem. The Commission is reminding charities that, if asked by the media about an incident, the Commission will normally provide a statement acknowledging that trustees acted responsibly in reporting it.

The Commission is also reminding trustees that charities required to file accounts, who have an income over £25,000, must also confirm, in their Annual Return, that the charity did not experience any serious incidents that should have been brought to the Commission's attention but were not.

To read the full alert visit www.charitycommission.gov.uk/our-regulatory-work/how-we-regulate-charities/alerts-and-warnings/reporting-serious-incidents-%28rsi%29/.