Charitable funds were recovered from three of the charities and were transferred to another charity or charities with similar objects (as required by the Charities Act 2011). One charity had no remaining assets that could be transferred.

Between 2020 and 2025, the Charity Commission has made orders for 4 charities to be wound up under s84B of the Charities Act 2011. It found in all cases that there had been misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity, that making the order was expedient in the public interest and that either the charity did not operate or that the charity's purposes could be promoted more effectively if it ceased to operate. The Charity Commission does not have the power to remove charitable status.

Ministers and officials regularly meet with the Charity Commission for England and Wales to discuss a range of issues relating to the regulation of charities.

The promotion of extremist views or terrorism in charities is unacceptable. The Charity Commission has been consistent and clear that it responds to such abuse robustly. This includes referring potential criminal offences to the police where relevant.

DCMS is planning to strengthen the Charity Commission’s powers to tackle extremist abuse of charities. This will include strengthening powers to close down charities that promote extremism, to protect the vast majority of the sector delivering positive work. We will also consult on measures to automatically ban individuals convicted of hate crimes from serving as charity trustees or senior managers, and make it easier for the Charity Commission to take action against people promoting violence or hatred.

As Local Authorities are not required to report the business rates revenue they raise from different types of properties, the Government does not hold this data.

More broadly, properties that are wholly or mainly used for a charitable purpose benefit from 80% business rates relief. Local Authorities can, at their discretion, top this up to 100% relief from business rates.

I would like to recognise the work of Armed Forces charities across the country. They play an invaluable role, offering support to the Armed Forces community - helping Serving military personnel, veterans and their families when they face difficulties and challenges; together with helping communities across the country.

This Government works closely with many Armed Forces charities. The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust also administered £10 million in HMG grants this financial year to support the Armed Forces community. Our new £50 million VALOUR initiative will help to bring together statutory services and the charity sector as a core objective. This will include development funding to support local delivery, and ensuring that services are available when, and where, they are needed.

The UK tax regime for charities is among the most generous in the world with tax reliefs for charities and their donors worth over £6 billion for the tax year to April 2024.

In March 2023, the UK Government announced that from April 2024 charitable tax reliefs would be restricted to UK-based charities. This means that, to be eligible for UK charity reliefs, a charity must fall under the jurisdiction of the High Court in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, or the Court of Session in Scotland. This can be achieved through registration with one of the UK charity Commissions or HMRC. Such a charity can continue to support charitable causes in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

Confiscation orders are the principal means by which the government carries out its policy to deprive criminals of the proceeds of their crime. They are used with the intent to disrupt and deter criminality. Receipts from confiscation orders, excluding any compensation amounts, are paid to the Home Office by agreement with HM Treasury. The Home Office remain the lead department on confiscation orders, and each financial year distribute a proportion of the funds they collected to partner agencies (including the Ministry of Justice). This funding is provided by the Home Office to respective partner agencies with a primary purpose of investing in asset recovery capabilities.

Over £2m will be spent this year with the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a charity that helps business and citizens to waste less.

Included in this work is the development, provision of, and roll out of advice, best practice and guidance to help the supply chain redistribute more surplus food to the charitable sector.

Redistribution charities continue to benefit from the increased capacity and capability from the £13m that has spent since 2018 on infrastructure such as warehousing, vehicles, fridges and freezers.

I absolutely agree with the issues the hon. Gentleman raises. We are learning from the first wave of applications to the small charities fund. I would like to make it less bureaucratic, more nimble and open to even smaller organisations.

They will indeed be able to avail themselves of the fund, provided that their annual income is less than £250,000 and provided that they are working in one of the 50 poorest countries in the world. Larger charities can apply to other sources of funding.

The new Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) was widely communicated to UK media and on social media. The Department has liaised with CADANI (Coalition of Aid and Development Agencies in Northern Ireland) to disseminate information to their members on the new fund as well as other appropriate Organisations in order to promote the Small Charities Challenge Fund in Northern Ireland. Letters were also sent to MPs and peers including from Northern Ireland informing them of the opening of the Fund.

The Ministry of Defence holds information on grants made to units and charities undertaking projects with, for, and including veterans in Northern Ireland from Legacy Funds, the Covenant Fund and the Aged Veterans Fund for the years 2012-13, 2015-16 and 2016-17, broken down below.

The Department will liaise with CADANI (Coalition of Aid and Development Agencies in Northern Ireland) as well as other appropriate Organisations in order to promote the Small Charities Challenge Fund.

There are three bodies that regulate charities in the UK; the Charity Commission for England and Wales, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. In all three jurisdictions organisations must be established for exclusively charitable purposes to be recognised and registered as charities. All applications to register an organisation as a charity are determined by whether or not an organisation meets the legal test for registration. All three bodies have robust processes for assessing any application for registration as a charity. The three regulators regularly meet to discuss areas of common concern and have provisions in their respective legislation which facilitates the exchange of information to assist and enable another to discharge their statutory functions.

The Department works with charities and other voluntary sector organisations and makes grant and procurement payments to these organisations. In 2014-15, £120 million was paid to the voluntary sector. Payment data is held at voluntary sector level, as such, charities are not separately categorised within this data set. It would incur disproportionate cost to extract this subset of the information.

Payments made through the procurement route are processed in line with Departmental processes, which are consistent with payments made to other organisations. Grant payments are made in accordance with the individual terms of the grant.

As I said, the key issue for the Brethren was to prove public benefit in what they were doing. That is the defining element of charity status and the Charity Commission accepted that.