IHTM11137 - Procedure: the Internet databases
In England & Wales, the Charity Commission has
responsibility for the regulation of charities that are required to
be registered under the Charities Act 1993. If a body is required
to register with them, upon registration they are placed upon the
Register, which is a Public document.
The Register is available on the internet. It is envisaged
that it will be accessed primarily by RRLT in cases where they have
been unable to trace a body on the HMRC Charities database (
IHTM11136). If you need to access the
database yourself, do not have access to the internet from your own
computer terminal or another terminal in your team and work in
Nottingham, you can use the terminal which is located in the IT
Team (Bus Ops) on the 2nd Floor of Ferrers House. Staff from the
FIT Helpdesk will log you on and assist if you have any problems.
In order to search the Register you will need to
- log on at www.charity-commission.gov.uk
- click on the tab marked ‘Registered Charities’
- click on ‘Search the Register’
- you will be asked ‘How would you like to search’ and given four choices: the most useful is ‘Search for charities by charity object or name keywords’
The Register will provide details such as the Charity
Registration Number, date of registration, contact address and
purposes of the charity.
As indicated at
IHTM11112 registration is conclusive of
charitable status.
It is important to remember that the database is not a
complete list of charities. It does not contain Scottish or
Northern Ireland charities. Neither does it contain charities which
are exempt from registration (such as places of worship, certain
education establishments and the bodies listed at
IHTM11224 nor smaller charities, which
can register but are not compelled to.
A copy of the Scottish Charity Index containing a list of
organisations recognised as charities by HMRC in Scotland is now
available at www.oscr.org.uk.
There are also plans for a comprehensive database to contain
information on UK charities on the free public website
www.guidestar.org.uk. The database is being set up by GuideStar UK
(itself an independent charity) and aims eventually to include
information on
- All registered charities in England and Wales
- All unregistered charities in England and Wales recognised by HMRC
- All charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland recognised by HMRC
The planned launch date for the database is the end of 2004.
