Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the Charity Commission’s powers to (a) regulate and (b) take action against (i) misconduct and (ii) mismanagement in charities.

As the independent regulator, the Charity Commission for England and Wales has a wide range of powers to tackle misconduct or mismanagement in charities. It acts robustly to tackle those who abuse charities.

In 2023-24 the Charity Commission concluded 3,710 regulatory concern cases, 65 statutory inquiries, and exercised its legal powers on 2,189 occasions.

Concerns about links to hostile states are taken seriously. Any evidence that there is misconduct or mismanagement within a registered charity should be referred to the Charity Commission.

Ministers and officials meet regularly with the Charity Commission and I met with the Commission last week to discuss these and other matters. We keep the Charity Commission's powers under regular review and are actively considering whether further powers are required.