Reporting of relevant matters of interest to UK charity regulators

November 23, 2017

The three UK charity regulators – CCEW, CCNI and OSCR – have issued a joint publication, Reporting of relevant matters of interest to UK charity regulators, which urges auditors and independent examiners to be more proactive about reporting concerns that may arise during their examination of charity accounts. Says the introduction:

“The charity regulators have published separate guidance about the matters of material significance that must be reported as a legal duty. Auditors and independent examiners should ensure that they have read that guidance and understand it so that they can confidently meet their legal duty to report where required.

This document provides examples of the matters that may be reported to the charity regulators. These are not the same as the matters of material significance, which are serious and must always be reported. Relevant matters are those matters that auditors and independent examiners consider are significant but are not listed as matters of material significance. The charity regulators will still be interested in such significant matters and so we encourage auditors and independent examiners to report them.”

The regulators’ basic message is, “If in doubt, report it”.