Corporate report

Charity Commission Operational Standards

Updated 14 December 2021

Applies to England and Wales

Charity Commission Operational Standards

In 2020-21, the Commission agreed a set of operational standards to lift our ambition to support delivery of our purpose for the remaining period of our five-year strategy.

These standards were set and designed for the services we provide the public and trustees, those who rely on us as a regulator and on whom we depend, so that they can hold us to account.

Our ambition is to lift performance towards meeting all of the standards over time. This ambition requires the Commission’s operational teams to improve on the progress made since 2019 by improving our operational efficiency and effectiveness.

The key purpose of working to, and reporting our performance against, the operational standards is to provide a clear and simple picture of the timeliness, quality and effectiveness of our operational work, to support good governance in charities and protect beneficiaries. Reporting on the standards each year also offers more information so that the public can see how, each year, the Commission is fulfilling its obligations to protect the public interest and the beneficiaries of charities.

We showed our performance against the operational performance standards for the first time in our Annual Report for 2020-21. We will report against the standards again in our Annual Report for 2021-22.

Our operational standards

1. If you need to contact us by phone, we aim to answer within 120 seconds, to understand your circumstances and offer clear advice and guidance. Our contact centre is available to answer your questions between 9:00am and 5pm (Monday to Friday). We anticipate answering the vast majority of calls we receive within 2 minutes. We will publish the volume of calls received and the percentage answered in 2 minutes in our annual report.

2. We aim to acknowledge all written enquiries to the Commission within four working days and start work on our initial assessment ^{[footnote 1]}. We will publish the volume of enquiries received and the percentage acknowledged in 4 working days in our annual report for 2020/1.

3. We aim to assess and provide an initial response to applications for registration, permissions and requests for advice within 10 working days. We will be honest about how long we think our work will take. If we think we will take longer than anticipated, we will explain why and set out any additional information we require from you. We anticipate assessing the vast majority of applications within 10 working days. We will publish the volume of applications received and the percentage provided with initial advice in 10 working days in our annual report.

4. We aim to decide registration, permission and advice requests within 30 working days. We will keep you updated on our progress with your request and share why cases take longer than this, typically because they involve complex legal or financial matters. We anticipate deciding the vast majority of applications within 30 working days. We will publish the volume of applications received and the percentage decided in 30 working days in our annual report.

5. We would like every charity on the register to comply with the requirement to provide an up to date Annual Return, and, we intend to reduce the number of charities without an up to date Annual Return on the Register. In our annual report, we will publish the number and percentage of charities that filed an Annual Return on time.

6. We will track and report the use of our powers in order to promote compliance with Charitable law. In our annual report , we will publish the occasions we used a power in our regulatory cases or investigations.

7. We will publish key findings from customer surveys we complete to test satisfaction with our key operational and digital services. Our annual report for will include the findings from regular surveys of those who use our operational services (for example our contact centre and digital services).

8. We aim to investigate and provide a response to complaints about the Charity Commission within 30 working days. We will keep you updated on our progress with your request and share why cases take longer than this, typically because they involve complex legal or financial matters. We anticipate managing the vast majority of complaints made about our work within 30 working days. We will publish the volume of applications received and the percentage decided in 30 working days in our annual report.

9. We aim to respond to Freedom for Information requests and letters from Members of Parliament within 20 days. In our annual report we will publish the volume of Freedom of Information Requests and MP letters received and the percentage responded to within 20 days.

1. Explanatory Note: The definition of this standard 2 has been revised. In February 2021, the Commission implemented a new case management system. With the change in system and different functionality it affords, we are no longer able to report performance as previously set out (2 working days) so have taken the decision to align the definition of the standard (to 4 working days). This reflects how the new system interfaces with our digital services that allows for the submission of electronic written enquiries to the Commission and their acknowledgement by the Commission. ↩