Charities face increasingly complex attacks, warns regulator

Charity Commission points to structural vulnerabilities in the regulation of some charity services

Charities face attacks from bad actors using increasingly complex methods, and sometimes exploiting overlaps between different regulators, according to an official report.

The Charity Commission’s second annual Charity Sector Risk Assessment highlights a sustained increase in concerns raised about charitable status being abused for private benefit, with a 29% increase in 2025-26 (374 cases) following a 38% increase in 2024-25 (291 cases, up from 211 in 2023-24).

The Commission reports an increase in “particularly complex case work”, often involving charities operating in fields where there are multiple regulators, or where the boundaries of regulatory remits are not clearly drawn.

This growing complexity has seen the charity regulator formally pass information to other agencies - including HRMC, the police, and local authorities – 500 times in the last year, up 8% on the previous 12 months.

Similarly, while the quality of some charities’ services is clearly regulated - such as educational charities regulated by Ofsted and care services regulated by Care Quality Commission – the Commission warns that some charities provide sensitive services to vulnerable groups in areas that do not have subject-expert regulation, including charities providing out of school settings and certain housing services. In some cases, the regulator is concerned that users may have little opportunity for redress if the quality of the services they receive is inadequate.

The Commission itself, as charity law regulator, assesses concerns about charities’ governance or compliance with their legal duties and takes action wherever appropriate. However, it does not have the powers or resources to ensure services are of sufficient quality or meet standards users might legitimately expect.