The Charity Commission used its regulatory powers more than 5,000 times last year but concluded fewer statutory inquiries than in the previous 12 months, data shows.
The commission finished 45 statutory inquiries in the year to March 2022, compared with 64 in 2020/21. These inquiries allow the regulator to use its full legal powers.
The Charity Commission disqualified 14 trustees, slightly down on the previous year, and issued 12 official warnings, down from 25.
The numbers are included in the commission’s annual report for 2020/21, which was published yesterday.
The regulator’s annual revenue, which is backed almost entirely by a government grant, was capped at £30.6m, up from £29.2m last year. It is expected to reach £32.1m in 2022/23.
The number of staff working for the commission has risen by about six per cent, from 443 to 470, although the accounts acknowledge that this includes a great deal of churn, with 94 employees leaving and 123 new staff joining the organisation.
The report said: “Like many other organisations, as we emerged from the pandemic the tightening of the labour market, combined with increased opportunities particularly in professional roles, led to difficulties in retention.”
The wage bill rose from £15.1m to £16.2m.
The regulator paid £219,000 in total as severance to departing staff, down from just under £500,000 in 2020/21.
The accounts say that there were 169,029 registered charities in England and Wales at the end of March 2022, down from 169,862. More than 5,000 charities were removed from the register during this period.
The regulator received 287 reports from whistleblowers raising concerns about specific charities, sharply down from 434 the year before.
The proportion of staff from black and ethnic minority backgrounds working at the commission, and of staff with disabilities, both fell for the second year in a row, although the annual report says that its reliance on self-reported human resources information for this data may “skew the figures downwards”.
Writing in the introduction to the annual report, Orlando Fraser, chair of the Charity Commission, said: “I can’t promise that the months ahead will be any less fraught. Our society faces serious challenges, of which the cost-of-living crisis is by far the greatest.
“Many charities will feel the pinch from both ends.
“As families tighten their belts, donations may well be squeezed, and demand on charities will almost certainly increase as more people turn to charity to meet their basic needs.
“We have a limited but very important role in helping charities weather this storm. We must help trustees understand and meet their duty of prudence, running their charities as efficiently and effectively as possible during straitened times. And in doing this, we will help uphold public trust in – and support for – charities, into the future.”