The Charity Commission has defended its decision to not compel charities to report on the diversity of their trustees and said it is exploring the best method to record and report such data.
In 2017, a report commissioned by the regulatory body, called Taken on Trust, urged the commission to report the diversity of board trustees in their annual return, for all charities with annual incomes of more than £500,000.
Last year, 65 organisations wrote to the regulator to encourage it to introduce the measure.
But the idea was not included when the commission updated the annual review last year.
Speaking at an event for Small Charity Week last week, Mike Allen, trustee recruitment and liaison at the local support charity Involve Community Services, said he was “really surprised” the regulator did not ask questions about trustee diversity in its annual return.
He described the commission’s decision not to introduce the requirement as “an opportunity missed”.
Allen said: “The problem is we don’t have the data. And therefore, as a trustee recruiter… we don’t know where we’re missing so we can’t target. And that’s the biggest thing.”
Holly Riley, head of strategic policy at the Charity Commission, responded that she was “super-keen” to collect more data on the diversity of charities’ trustees, but the regulator had decided the annual return was not the best way to do that.
“The reason we didn’t put it in the annual return is, one, that it is filled in by one person from the charity, and therefore there is a question [over its accuracy].
“As well, with a lot of small charities, it wouldn’t give us data that we could publish, because of the small numbers of people and the identifiable characteristics in there.
“So, I don’t think personally that the annual return is the kind of golden bullet – I think there are other ways of doing it. And it’s definitely something that I’m super-keen that we do. But it just isn’t in the annual return.”
In a statement, the Charity Commission said: “A diverse and representative board, with a broad range of skills, backgrounds and experiences, helps charities make more informed decisions, which contributes to good governance.
“The commission is engaging with stakeholders to better understand the barriers to trusteeship and broaden its appeal to the widest range of people.
“The commission is taking targeted action to address this through its guidance, campaigns and events.
“Use of the annual return (the only mandatory reporting requirement for charities with incomes over £5,000) to collect diversity data was explored in a recent consultation exercise, but this established it is not an appropriate means to report this type of data.
“The commission is engaging with partners to explore alternatives.”