Charities and volunteering: your questions answered
How many registered charities there are, how to check a charity and its accounts, Gift Aid and tax relief figures, regulators and volunteering rates.
What does the Charity Commission do?
The Charity Commission is the regulator and registrar of charities in England and Wales. It is an independent, non-ministerial government department accountable to Parliament, with about 450 staff in Liverpool, London, Newport and Taunton. Its powers come mainly from the Charities Act 2011.
It decides which organisations are charitable and should be registered, removes those that no longer exist or operate, and checks that charities meet legal duties such as filing information each year. Where it finds wrongdoing or harm it can act, for example by freezing a charity's bank account or suspending or removing a trustee. It also publishes the register and guidance for trustees.
It does not regulate charities in Scotland or Northern Ireland, and GOV.UK directs fundraising complaints to the Fundraising Regulator rather than the Commission.
Related: How do I report a concern about a charity? · Who regulates charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland? · How do I check if a charity is registered?
How do I check if a charity is registered?
Search the official register for the part of the UK where the charity is based. For England and Wales, use the Charity Commission's register of charities, searchable by name, number or area. Scotland has the Scottish Charity Register and Northern Ireland the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register.
A register entry shows the charity number, what the charity does, its trustees, its income and spending, and whether it has sent its annual returns and accounts on time. GOV.UK's find charity information page explains what the England and Wales register covers.
Absence from a register does not always mean an organisation is not a charity: in England and Wales, charities with income under £5,000 and exempt or excepted charities are not listed. Registration means a charity is regulated, not that a regulator endorses it. See how to read its accounts.
Related: How do I see a charity's accounts? · Do all charities have to register? · How do I report a concern about a charity? · How many charities are there in the UK?
How do I report a concern about a charity?
GOV.UK's complain about a charity guide says to raise most complaints with the charity first, unless you suspect illegal activity such as abuse or terrorism, which should go to the police on 101. Complaints about how you were asked for money go to the Fundraising Regulator, and about advertising to the Advertising Standards Authority.
Serious concerns go to the Charity Commission for England and Wales: for example a charity not doing what it claims, losing large sums, harming people, being used for personal gain or involved in illegal activity. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own routes, through OSCR and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.
Trustees must also report serious incidents, such as fraud or harm to people, to the Commission. GOV.UK sets out separate routes for charity employees and volunteers who want to raise a concern.
Related: What does the Charity Commission do? · How do I check if a charity is registered? · Who regulates charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
How many charities are there in the UK?
There is no single UK count, because each part of the UK keeps its own register. On 13 October 2026 the Charity Commission register listed 171,874 main charities in England and Wales, plus 13,755 linked charities. OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator, was registrar for 24,953 charities in Scotland. Northern Ireland's register, run by the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, is still being built as charities are called forward to register.
Related: Do all charities have to register? · How do I check if a charity is registered? · Who regulates charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland? · How many people volunteer in the UK?
How do I see a charity's accounts?
Look up the charity on its regulator's register. The Charity Commission register shows each England and Wales charity's income and spending, and charities above set income thresholds must file their accounts and trustees' annual report, which you can download from the entry.
In Scotland, OSCR has published in full every accounts document submitted with an online annual return since 9 March 2026, without redactions, along with trustee names and the number of staff and volunteers. The Northern Ireland register shows the returns charities have filed there.
All charities must prepare accounts, and the Charity Commission says accounts and trustees' reports must be available to the public on request. The rules on how detailed accounts must be, and whether they are checked by an examiner or auditor, depend on income; see audit and examination thresholds.
Related: How do I check if a charity is registered? · When does a charity need an audit or independent examination? · What does the Charity Commission do?
Who regulates charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
In Scotland it is OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator, under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. Based in Dundee, it is a non-ministerial office independent of the Scottish Government and reports to the Scottish Parliament. It keeps the Scottish Charity Register, which every charity in Scotland must join.
Related: What does the Charity Commission do? · Do all charities have to register? · How many charities are there in the UK?
How does Gift Aid work?
Gift Aid lets charities and community amateur sports clubs claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated by a UK taxpayer, at no extra cost to the donor. The 25p is the basic rate tax already paid on the gift: £1.25 of pre-tax income, taxed at 20%, leaves £1.
The donor signs a Gift Aid declaration for each charity. They must have paid enough Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in the tax year to cover what the charity reclaims, or HMRC may ask them to pay the difference. Higher and additional rate taxpayers, including in Scotland, can claim back the difference between their rate and the basic rate through Self Assessment.
A related Small Donations Scheme lets charities claim on small cash gifts without declarations. For how much is claimed, see Gift Aid totals.
Related: How much Gift Aid do charities claim? · How much tax relief do charities get? · What are the income tax bands in England, Wales and Northern Ireland?
When does a charity need an audit or independent examination?
In England and Wales the thresholds rose for financial years ending on or after 30 September 2026, the Charity Commission explains. Accounts must be independently examined if income is over £40,000 (previously £25,000), by a qualified examiner if over £500,000. An audit is needed if income is over £1.5 million (previously £1 million), or over £500,000 with assets above £5 million.
Non-company charities with income below £500,000 can now produce simpler receipts and payments accounts. Charities in England and Wales must report to the Commission within 10 months of their year end; Scotland allows 9 months and Northern Ireland 10 months. A new Charities SORP applies to periods starting on or after 1 January 2026.
Scotland and Northern Ireland set their own thresholds, and charitable companies must also meet company law.
Related: How do I see a charity's accounts? · What does the Charity Commission do? · Who regulates charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
How much tax relief do charities get?
Tax reliefs for charities and their donors were worth around £7.4 billion in the tax year to April 2026, up 4% on the year, according to HMRC's charity tax relief statistics. Of this, £5.05 billion went to charities and £2.34 billion to donors.
The largest single relief is on business rates, worth £2.87 billion: charities get an 80% reduction, and some councils top it up to 100%. The others are £1.88 billion of Gift Aid, £1.28 billion of Inheritance Tax relief on gifts, £920 million of higher rate relief for donors and £280 million of Stamp Duty Land Tax relief.
HMRC's total includes only reliefs it can estimate each year, so the full value of charities' tax advantages is larger. For how Gift Aid works, see Gift Aid explained.
Related: How much Gift Aid do charities claim? · How does Gift Aid work? · How much tax revenue does the UK collect?
Do all charities have to register?
Not in England and Wales. A charity there must apply to register with the Charity Commission if its income is at least £5,000 a year or it is a charitable incorporated organisation. Smaller charities, exempt charities, which the Commission does not regulate, and some excepted charities do not have to register.
Scotland and Northern Ireland have no size threshold. OSCR says all charities in Scotland must be registered and meet annual reporting rules to keep their status. In Northern Ireland every charity must register with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, however small, once the Commission calls it forward; organisations first complete an expression of intent form.
Being recognised by HMRC for Gift Aid and tax reliefs is a separate process from registering with a charity regulator.
Related: How many charities are there in the UK? · How do I check if a charity is registered? · Who regulates charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
How much Gift Aid do charities claim?
HMRC paid charities £1.88 billion in Gift Aid in the tax year to April 2026, up 10% on the year before, according to its charity tax relief statistics published on 1 July 2026. HMRC says about half of the rise came from a small number of extra very large Gift Aided donations.
Donors received a further £920 million in higher rate relief on Gift Aided gifts. Payments under the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme stayed at £40 million. Just under half the value of Gift Aid went to charities receiving less than £1 million each. Separately, 1.3 million people declared a donation on their Self Assessment return for 2024 to 2025.
Figures for the latest year are provisional and are revised in the next release, due in summer 2027. For all reliefs, see charity tax relief.
Related: How does Gift Aid work? · How much tax relief do charities get? · How many charities are there in the UK?
How many people volunteer in the UK?
In England, 18% of people aged 16 and over volunteered formally, through a group, club or organisation, at least once a month in 2025 to 2026, up from 17% the year before. That comes from DCMS's Community and Engagement Survey, published on 31 July 2026. 31% did so at least once in the year, and 35% volunteered formally or informally at least once a month.
Monthly formal volunteering was 27% in 2013 to 2014 under the earlier Community Life Survey, which the new survey replaced in October 2025. Rates by council area ranged from 10% in South Tyneside to 29% in Rushcliffe, excluding the City of London.
There is no single UK figure: Scotland uses the Scottish Household Survey and Wales the National Survey for Wales. Charities in England and Wales report a combined 6.7 million volunteers on the register, a total that can count the same person more than once.
Related: How many charities are there in the UK? · How many unpaid carers are there in the UK? · How much Gift Aid do charities claim?
These answers say where official figures are published and how they are defined. They give no verdict on any claim. To report an error, send a correction request.