How to report a serious incident in your charity
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Guidance for charity trustees about serious incidents: how to spot them and how to report.
Adapted edition
- Document type
- Reference Guide
- Format
- DOCX
- Pages
- 14
- Language
- English
- Version
- 1.0
- Updated
- 2026-09-16
- Category
- Governance & assurance
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
Description
Guidance for charity trustees about serious incidents: how to spot them and how to report. Consult the original guidance for current legal and operational details.
Contents
- The responsibility to report
- What is a serious incident?
- Who should report?
- Why must you tell the Commission?
- In summary
- In more detail
- When to report
- Whistleblowing - speaking out if you suspect wrongdoing
- Duties of auditors and independent examiners to report matters
- What to report
- Reporting criminal activity
- Protecting people and safeguarding incidents
- Types of safeguarding incident to report
- The Commission's role in relation to safeguarding incidents
- Safeguarding incidents that occur outside of the charity
- Reporting safeguarding incidents to other regulators
Source and licence
The Charity Commission
AttributionThe Charity Commission, ‘How to report a serious incident in your charity’ (updated 16 January 2026), reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
ChangesNeutral text-only adaptation from the official GOV.UK Content API body: headings, paragraphs, ordered and unordered list items and clickable source-link destinations in an appendix preserved. Images, logos, page design, accessible-format request widgets and linked attachments excluded; normalised whitespace, invisible format marks and typography.
Version history
- v1.016/09/2026