The Charity Commission has updated its guidance on reporting serious incidents in charities.
It's important to be aware that the Commission requires charities to report serious incidents and provide "prompt, full and frank disclosure". When reporting an incident, you should tell the Commission what has happened and how you are dealing with it.
This is because when something serious happens, it's the Commission's role to ensure that the trustees comply with their legal duties and the charity manages the incident responsibly.
The updated guidance aims to provide more clarity in relation to what should be reported.
For the purposes of this guidance, "significant" means significant in the context of your charity, taking account of its staff, operations, finances and/or reputation.
The guidance also provides more detail on different kinds of serious incident from criminal activity, to safeguarding, financial issues, terrorism and other kinds of significant incidents.
We would recommend that charity trustees and senior staff familiarise themselves with the Commission's guidance on reporting serious incidents to ensure that they know what to do if something goes wrong.