Press release: New Charity Investigation: Croydon Tabernacle

The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a statutory inquiry into Croydon Tabernacle (1070276). The inquiry was opened on 14 March 2018.

The charity’s objects include advancing the Christian faith, relieving people who are in conditions of vulnerability or hardship and promoting charitable purposes which might benefit the areas of Surrey, Greater London and other parts of the United Kingdom or the world.

The Commission examined the charity’s financial information and found cause for serious regulatory concern. This included substantial unexplained expenditure and potentially conflicted payments to people connected with the charity. As a result of its concerns, the Commission has frozen a bank account controlled by the charity.

The Commission has been engaging with the charity since November 2016 to examine its concerns; this included a meeting with the charity in February 2017. However the engagement did not resolve the regulatory concerns so a statutory inquiry has been opened.

The inquiry will examine the extent of risks to charity property and whether:

there has been misconduct or mismanagement in the administration of the charity and/or breaches of trust or non-compliance with charity law
potential conflicts of interest have been adequately identified or managed
connected party payments or transactions have been properly authorised

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

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Notes to editors

The Charity Commission is the regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work see the about us page on GOV.UK.
Search for charities on our check charity tool.
Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.