Charity Commission

The Commission's own GOV.UK organisation page states its function in a single sentence: 'We register and regulate charities in England and Wales, to ensure that the public can support charities with confidence.' It is constituted as an independent regulator rather than a branch of a government department with a minister at its head: 'The Charity Commission is a non-ministerial department.'

Its regulatory role extends beyond simply keeping a public register: the Commission repeatedly describes itself, in its own published case reports, as 'the regulator of charities in England and Wales' and uses statutory investigatory powers where it has concerns, including opening formal inquiries into individual charities and, where necessary, appointing Interim Managers to take over a charity's affairs while an inquiry is ongoing.