Independent Review of Charity Regulation in Northern Ireland

The Department for Communities has published the Report on the Independent Review of Charity Regulation, commissioned by the Minister for Communities in January 2021. The Independent Review Panel was chaired by Dr Oonagh Breen, Professor of Law at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin, whose research focuses on comparative charity law regulation and governance. Dr Breen was supported by Noel Lavery, former Permanent Secretary of a number of NICS Departments and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, and the Reverend Dr Lesley Carroll, the NI Prisoner Ombudsman and former Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Equality Commission. In fulfilling its Terms of Reference, the Panel’s comprehensive review report contains findings and recommendations in relation to the regulatory framework, the Commission’s performance, the Department’s leadership and oversight of the regulatory framework and best practice in relation to all of these, taking lessons from across the UK, Ireland and elsewhere. Through its inclusive engagement process, it heard from 306 community engagement webinar attendees, and attendees at 20 other meetings with other regulators and their responsible government bodies, the Department for Communities, the Charity Commission and other interested stakeholders. It received 145 written submissions. The report finds that the Charity Commission NI was constrained from its earliest days as a result of flawed legislation made by the former Department, and as a result, the sequencing and focusing of its work was disproportionately focused on compliance, at the cost of completion of the charity register, with a need for a reset of the Commission’s communications and engagement approach to recalibrate its culture and relationship with the charity sector. The Report makes 93 recommendations, all of which the Panel see as important and includes, as a matter of priority, the completion of the charity register. In addition, it recommends changes to accounting and reporting requirements, and the commencement of the provisions for Charitable Incorporated Organisations in NI. The full Independent Review of Charity Regulation report is available at the Department for Communities website.