Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of legislating to provide the Charity Commission for England and Wales with additional investigatory powers.

The Government keeps the Charity Commission's powers under regular review and is actively considering what further powers are required to support the Commission in regulating charities. As a non-ministerial department, the Charity Commission receives its funding directly from the Treasury. In the 2025 Spending Review the Charity Commission’s budget increased by over 27% to £37.9m for 2026-27. This will support the Commission to respond to increasing casework demands.

The Charity Commission already has the power to disqualify charity trustees whose conduct is damaging to public trust and confidence in charities under section 181A of the Charities Act 2011. As part of the Government’s action plan for social cohesion we have announced that the Charity Commission’s powers will be extended in order to tackle extremist abuse of charities and strengthen the Commission's oversight of the sector. This includes helping the Commission to disqualify charity trustees who have been excluded from the UK, deprived of British citizenship or are engaged in conduct which promotes violence or hatred.