Policy paper

Our counter-terrorism work

Published 23 May 2013

Applies to England and Wales

© Crown copyright 2013

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Charities, like other types of organisation, can be vulnerable to criminal and terrorist abuse.

1. About terrorist abuse of charities

The Charity Commission’s experience is that proven instances of terrorist involvement or association in the charitable sector are low in comparison to the size of the sector. However, any such abuse is completely unacceptable and corrodes public confidence in charities. Charities therefore need to ensure they are not at risk.

The commission’s counter-terrorism strategy explains our role and approach for dealing with concerns about the abuse of charities for terrorist purposes and our strategy for tackling the risk of terrorist abuse in the charitable sector.

The commission has updated the strategy to take into account the findings of the government’s review of Prevent. However, the strategy still has a four strand approach to protecting charities from the risk of terrorist abuse:

  • awareness: raising awareness in the sector to build on charities’ existing safeguards
  • oversight and supervision: proactive monitoring of the sector, analysing trends and profiling risks and vulnerabilities
  • co-operation: strengthening partnerships with government regulators and enforcement agencies nationally and internationally
  • intervention: dealing effectively and robustly when abuse, or the risk of abuse, is apparent

Use this compliance toolkit to learn how to safeguard your charity from terrorism, fraud and other forms of abuse.

Find out ways to handle your charity’s money safely.

Read detailed guidance for charities whose work is either wholly or partly international or overseas based.

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