Serious incident guide
Charity serious incident reporting examples and checklist
A serious incident report is not just an online form. Trustees need to decide whether an actual or alleged event is significant in the context of the charity, take immediate action, report to other agencies where needed, preserve evidence, minimise personal data, and keep the annual return declaration aligned with what was reported.
Decide if it is significant
- Start with the Charity Commission definition: an adverse event, actual or alleged, that results in or risks significant harm, loss, property damage, work disruption, or reputational harm in the context of the charity
- Treat safeguarding, fraud, theft, cyber-crime, money laundering, suspicious donations, financial loss, terrorism or extremism links, insolvency, forced banking withdrawal, data breaches, and partner incidents as high-signal categories
- Do not rely on a fixed minimum loss rule; the Commission says financial crime significance depends on the charity, income, harm, risk, seniority, repetition, public appeal funds, and public interest
- Use GBP 25,000 or more, or more than 20% of income, as a strong worker/volunteer concern signal, but still apply trustee judgement for smaller incidents with high harm or repeated patterns
- Record borderline decisions and report them back to trustees, especially where an employee or adviser was delegated to assess whether a report was needed
Act before and while reporting
- Take immediate steps to limit harm, protect beneficiaries, staff, volunteers, assets, records, systems, bank accounts, and charity reputation
- Report criminal activity to the relevant agency as well as the Commission: safeguarding to police or local authority routes, fraud and cyber-crime to Report Fraud, theft to police, and terrorism concerns to police routes
- Do not wait for arrests, charges, convictions, insurer decisions, audit findings, or a complete internal investigation before making the Commission report
- Preserve evidence, access logs, bank records, emails, board minutes, incident timelines, policy records, advice notes, media lines, and agency reference numbers
- Keep personal data out of the initial report unless it is essential; describe roles or relationships and let the Commission ask for names or personal details if needed
Prepare the report pack
- Confirm who has trustee-body authority to submit or approve the report, and document that authority before using the RSI service
- Collect charity name, registration number, submitter details, contact details, police or regulator reference numbers, and other charities involved
- Prepare incident facts: date of incident, date the charity found out, how it found out, what happened, current status, and impact on beneficiaries, finances, staff, operations, property, or reputation
- Explain how the charity is handling it: policies or procedures involved, whether they were followed, containment steps, prevention steps, trustee awareness, communications, and media handling
- For connected charities, federation structures, funded partnerships, or overseas delivery, state which charities are affected and what action each trustee body is taking
After submission and annual return
- Keep the incident reference number from the confirmation email because it is needed for future updates
- Send an update when material facts change, investigations develop, alleged wrongdoing is disproved, responsible individuals are exonerated, or the Commission asks for timely updates
- If annual income is over GBP 25,000, trustees must confirm in the annual return that no serious incidents in the previous financial year should have been reported but were not
- Submit missed serious incident reports before filing the annual return so trustees can make the declaration without creating a false or misleading filing risk
- Feed the lessons back into the risk register, safeguarding review, fraud controls, access controls, reserves planning, data protection review, partner due diligence, trustee minutes, and staff or volunteer training
Official sources
Official source
How to report a serious incident in your charity
Charity Commission guidance for trustees in England and Wales, updated 16 January 2026, covering responsibility, reportable categories, examples, data, updates, and annual return declarations.
Official source
Report a serious incident online form
Official Charity Commission RSI service for reporting a new serious incident or updating an incident already reported on behalf of the trustee body.
Official source
Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees
Charity Commission safeguarding guidance covering trustee duties, concerns, reporting routes, policy review, and risk registers.
Official source
Internal financial controls for charities (CC8)
Charity Commission controls guidance for fraud, loss, banking, income, expenditure, assets, records, and incident escalation evidence.
Official source
Charities and risk management (CC26)
Charity Commission risk guidance for identifying, assessing, managing, monitoring, and reviewing risks that can lead to serious incidents.
Official source
The essential trustee (CC3)
Charity Commission trustee duties guidance covering responsibility for charity assets, reputation, governance, decision-making, and legal compliance.
Official source
Improving your charity's finances (CC12)
Charity Commission guidance for financial difficulty and insolvency risk, relevant where losses, funding shocks, or forced banking withdrawal threaten continuity.
Official source
Report Fraud
Police-backed Report Fraud route for fraud and cyber-crime reports in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland before or alongside Charity Commission reporting where relevant.
Official source
Report serious wrongdoing at a charity as a worker or volunteer
Charity Commission route for workers or volunteers reporting serious wrongdoing, separate from trustee-body serious incident reporting.
Related tools
Interactive tool
Charity serious incident reporting checker
Check whether an actual or alleged incident has strong Charity Commission serious-incident reporting signals and whether the trustee body has the evidence needed before using the official report form. The checker follows GOV.UK serious incident guidance without giving legal, safeguarding, criminal, insurance, audit, data-protection, or governance advice.
Interactive tool
Charity safeguarding policy checker
Check whether a charity's safeguarding and protecting-people arrangements have the evidence trustees need before annual review, service changes, online delivery, volunteer recruitment, overseas work, or incident follow-up. The checker follows Charity Commission safeguarding guidance without giving legal, safeguarding, employment, data-protection, insurance, criminal, or governance advice.
Interactive tool
Charity risk register checker
Check whether a charity risk register has the evidence trustees need before annual reporting, insurance renewal, cyber review, service planning, reserves review, funding decisions, or major supplier changes. The checker follows Charity Commission CC26 themes without giving legal, insurance, audit, safeguarding, investment, or governance advice.
Interactive tool
Charity internal financial controls checker
Check whether a charity's internal financial controls have the evidence trustees need before year-end accounts, fraud review, bank mandate changes, online banking setup, fundraising events, grant payments, supplier payments, or serious incident follow-up. The checker follows Charity Commission CC8 themes without giving accounting, audit, tax, legal, investment, fraud investigation, or governance advice.
Interactive tool
Charity data protection readiness checker
Check whether a charity has practical evidence ready before launching forms, fundraising campaigns, CRM migrations, AI tools, beneficiary systems, staff data workflows, or supplier questionnaires. The checker scores operational readiness and links to official ICO guidance without giving legal advice.
Interactive tool
Charity accounts filing deadline checker for England and Wales
Enter a charity financial year end date to estimate the usual Charity Commission annual return deadline and build a filing evidence checklist. The tool follows the public 10-month rule but does not replace Charity Commission guidance, professional advice, or the official register.
Interactive tool
UK charity due diligence checker before donating or partnering
Check the public-source work that should happen before donating to, funding, commissioning, or partnering with a UK charity. The tool supports research only and is not a fraud, safety, quality, impact, or donation recommendation rating.
Interactive tool
Charity reserves policy checker
Check whether a charity reserves policy has the evidence trustees need before annual reporting, grant conversations, budget review, risk review, or reserves target changes. The checker follows Charity Commission CC19 themes without giving accounting, audit, insolvency, investment, or legal advice.
Interactive tool
Charity password and access security checker
Check whether a charity has the core access controls needed before expanding software accounts. The checker gives a risk band, an action list, and source-checked benefits to review; it does not replace professional security advice, legal advice, or provider eligibility checks.
Common questions
FAQ
What is a serious incident for a UK charity?
It is an actual or alleged adverse event that results in, or risks, significant harm to people connected with the charity, loss of money or assets, property damage, harm to the charity's work, or reputational harm in the context of that charity.
FAQ
Who is responsible for reporting a serious incident?
The responsibility rests with trustees. A staff member, adviser, or other person may submit the report in practice, but they should have authority from the trustee body and trustees remain ultimately responsible for timely reporting.
FAQ
When should a charity report a serious incident?
Report promptly, as soon as reasonably possible after the incident happens or after the charity becomes aware of it. Do not wait for a police outcome, regulator outcome, insurance decision, or complete internal investigation before reporting.
FAQ
Is there a minimum financial loss before reporting?
There is no fixed minimum loss for trustees. The Commission says seriousness depends on context, including charity income, harm, risk, seniority, repetition, public appeal funds, and public interest; GBP 25,000 or more, or more than 20% of income, is a strong concern signal in worker or volunteer guidance.
FAQ
Does a charity still need to report to police or another regulator?
Yes where relevant. Serious incident reporting does not replace police, safeguarding, Report Fraud, ICO, HMRC, terrorism, insurer, funder, local authority, or other regulator routes; the Commission asks what action has been taken or planned.
FAQ
What information is needed before using the RSI form?
Prepare submitter contact details, charity name and registration number, agency references, dates, what happened, when the charity found out, impact, trustee awareness, policies involved, containment actions, prevention actions, and media handling if relevant.
FAQ
Should the report include personal data about individuals?
Keep personal data out of the initial report unless it is essential. The RSI service says to describe what happened without naming people where possible, and the Commission will ask for more details if it needs them.
FAQ
How does serious incident reporting affect the annual return?
For charities with income over GBP 25,000, trustees must confirm in the annual return that there were no serious incidents in the previous financial year that should have been reported but were not, so missed reports should be submitted before filing.
Decision notes
- This page is governance and incident-response guidance, not legal advice, safeguarding advice, criminal advice, insurance advice, audit advice, data-protection advice, or a substitute for the official Charity Commission report form.
- Trustees remain responsible for deciding whether an incident is significant in the charity's context and for making a prompt, full, and frank report where needed.
- Search-intent pages like this are indexable because they combine current official sources, serious incident categories, example scenarios, evidence pack checks, FAQ answers, and practical tool links rather than copying the official guidance.
- Where there is immediate danger, abuse, criminal activity, terrorism risk, cyber-crime, financial loss, insolvency risk, or personal-data exposure, use the relevant emergency, police, safeguarding, Report Fraud, ICO, regulator, insurer, and professional advice routes as well as Charity Commission reporting.