Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a legal requirement for religious institutions to publicly declare (a) donations and (b) overseas funding.

Faith-based organisations and faith-based giving play an important role in our society. Their contributions play an integral role in supporting our most vulnerable in communities and tackling a number of social challenges.

Faith-based Institutions and organisations registered as a charity (with an income of over £25,000) and as other not for profit entities, either through the Charity Commission or Companies House, are required to produce and submit annual returns, reports and accounts to their relevant regulatory body. All returns, reports and accounts required by law must be made available on request by the registering body or is made accessible via a public register.

Some religious charities are ‘excepted’ from charity registration and are not required to register or submit annual returns. They are still charities, and are subject to charity law.

This government encourages greater transparency across the charity sector as a matter of good practice and it is our assessment that the current level of legal transparency, regarding sources of funding for charities, is appropriate. It is right that charities are not legally required to publicly disclose the identity of individual donors because donor anonymity can be an important factor in giving people the confidence to donate to charitable causes they care about.