Charity Commission annual report and trustee research 2025-26

The Charity Commission has published its annual report and accounts for 2025-26, along with its annual public and trustee research. Together, they provide a detailed picture of the challenges facing the sector and the regulator in the 12 months up to April 2026. The public and trustee research covers a variety of topics and will be of particular interest to many boards.

We have pulled out four key themes from the reports to highlight:  

Public trust in charities 
The good news from the Commission’s annual research on public trust in charities is that overall trust in charities remains very high (second only to doctors, in comparison to other organisations). Money reaching the end cause remains the most important driver of trust, whilst tolerance for overheads exists - but only when impact and restraint on salaries are visible. The survey also shows that for the first time since the pandemic, the proportion attending charity-run community facilities, using other charity services and receiving food, financial, medical or similar help has declined.  

Divisions in society impacting charities 
Whilst public trust in the sector has risen again since the lows of 2016-18, the Commission’s survey of trustees highlights the growing impact of polarisation and division in society on a significant minority of charities. More than 27% of charities experienced impacts from a challenging social environment - ranging from vandalism, protests, and changes in the level of support, to having to stop or change services. The research also shows the effects are disproportionately felt by charities promoting causes such as human rights or religious and racial harmony.

The findings confirm the concerns voiced by both the sector and the regulator over the past 18 months. The Commission, to its credit, has been consistent for some time now in stressing its commitment to guard against being “weaponised by those who seek to use our regulatory role as a way of undermining charities whose work they do not agree with” – as its chair, Dame Julia Unwin, puts it in her introduction to the annual report. It has also been prepared to put these words into action, demonstrated in April 2026 when it went out of its way to criticise the “misinformation campaign, including threats to charity trustees and staff” against the refugee charity, City of Sanctuary UK, and give the charity a clean bill of health after complaints were made against it.

Financial strains and banking services 
The trustee research also highlights that financial strains continue to affect charities, but they appear to be stabilising. The overall prevalence of banking issues is also down since 2024, though over a third of charities still had concerns about banking services, with the most common issues being updating contact details or signatories, while 13% of charities reported difficulties with opening bank accounts.  

Charity Commission services 
The Commission’s annual report shows the rising pressure on the Commission’s services, no more so than in the sharp 20% increase in applications it received to register a charity, up from 9,836 in 2024-25 to 11,759 in 2025-26. The Commission attributes this “long running trend” to factors “such as ongoing financial uncertainty, responding to environmental changes, and global conflicts.” There was also a sharp decrease in the use of the Commission’s Contact Centre, as its newer digital services were rolled out last year. But for charities needing decisions on registration, permission and advice requests, only 80% were received within 30 working days, down from 86% in the previous year.

The Commission acknowledges that this “will remain a key challenge in the months ahead as we work to address capacity and demand pressures.” As we reported earlier in the year, it announced in January 2026 that it was receiving a much needed 23% headcount increase as a result of new funding from April.

On the enforcement side, the number of serious incident reports made to the Commission remained largely the same, with 3,132 compared to 3,072 in the previous year, with whistleblowing reports up slightly to 594 from 547. However, the Commission concluded 4,996 “regulatory concern” cases last year, up substantially from 4,375 the previous year, which it says “reflects the increased number of complaints we received about charities”. It opened 69 formal “statutory inquiries”, down sharply from 112 the previous year (which represented an unusually high annual number due to inquiries opened into double defaulting charities in 2024-25).

Final thoughts 
Looking forward to the next 12 months, we are expecting the Commission’s annual sector risk assessment in September, along with its guidance for charities on the Equality Act, and further updates on the planned new powers to tackle extremism. Meanwhile, the annual report makes clear that improvements to the Commission’s services will take time to roll out.