Charity Commission reports on whistleblowing disclosures made between 2024 to 2025

Charity Commission reports on whistleblowing disclosures made between 2024 to 2025

The Charity Commission is the regulatory body for whistleblowing disclosures related to charities. In its 2025 report on whistleblowing disclosures, the Commission states that between 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 the Commission received 546 whistleblowing disclosures.

The Commission continues to receive high levels of whistleblowing disclosures in comparison with previous years, with 2024 to 2025 being the second-highest number it has received within the last 10 years.  

The report reveals that 54% of disclosures were made by employees (including ex-employees).   Consistent with data from previous years, the key concerns raised related to governance failures, financial harms and safeguarding and protecting people.   

Governance failures remain the most prominent concern and account for more than 55% of the disclosures made.  Disclosure of governance failures has risen consistently since 2016 and amounted to 303 disclosures in 2024/2025.  Contrastingly, reports related to financial harms have decreased from 128 last year to 96 this year.  Similarly, disclosures concerning safeguarding decreased from 104 to 84. Other issues raised included disputes, conflicts of interest, reputational damage, public benefit and GDPR breaches.

The Commission focuses on dealing with instances causing the greatest harm to charities and the public's confidence in them.  Their action taken in response to a disclosure will be proportionate to the seriousness of the harm.  In response to 210 of the disclosures, the Commission decided that it was not proportionate to take further action following enquiries.  Regulatory advice and guidance or an action plan was provided in 84 of the cases, with information gathering powers being exercised as a response to 8 of the disclosures.  The Commission signposted the disclosure to other regulators in 7 instances and verified that trustees were dealing with the issue as a response to 3 of the disclosures.