Press Release

Commission publishes new public benefit example reports

23 March 2009

The Charity Commission has published further online examples of trustees' annual reports. The example reports are fictional and cover three different categories of charity:

Parochial Church Councils
Fee-charging schools
Grant-giving trusts

The fictional examples show how reporting on public benefit sits within the existing structure of trustees' annual reports and illustrate how these reports can be adapted to include public benefit reporting.

Andrew Hind, the Commission's Chief Executive, said,

"We have produced these example trustees' annual reports to offer further guidance to charities on how best to report on the public benefit they provide. The examples are not templates, but we hope they will prove a useful tool for trustees as they report on their public benefit for the first time in the next set of annual accounts published after 31 March 2009. These examples allow charities to envisage in a practical way how their own trustees' annual report might look as they move towards reporting on public benefit. We are committed to assisting charities comply with the new reporting requirements and this guidance has been produced in response to requests from the sector."

The three new example reports accompany the Commission's existing public benefit guidance and are available from the website at www.charitycommission.gov.uk under 'Public benefit guidance'.