Charity Accounts

The petition is entitled to require charities to fully and publically disclose how donated money is spent and the explanatory notes say

Potential and actual donors should have the ability to find out how the charities of their choice actually spend the money. Charities should make public, in great detail, who gets the money and how much. Genuine charities would benefit.

I looked at this and thought: "What? Surely they do?" So I went to the Charity Commission website and clicked on the link "About Registered Charities" and then Charity Accounts, and lo and behold, it tells me

"Charities have to submit accounts to us annually and until recently these were stored in paper format - which made it harder for you to access them. In a bid to promote greater transparency and accountability, you can now examine the accounts of 35,000 charities online. This is the latest in a series of improvements to our website. The online accounts are scanned images and are reproduced in PDF format.

To view the accounts follow these instructions:

1. From the home page, click on 'About registered charities'.
   
2. Then click on 'search the register'.
   
3. Use the search options to find the charity you're looking for.
   
4. Brief financial details are outlined in a table at the bottom of the charity's page. Above the table, you will have the option to access the accounts.

Users accessing the accounts on our website should be aware of a few health warnings:

• The quality of scanned images can be variable. While all should be legible there can sometimes be imperfections that arise in the scanning process.
  
• The content of the accounts and trustees' reports may not conform to best practice. Some charities do not adopt the correct accounting format and fail to give adequate detail in their trustees' reports.
  
• A minority of charities do not submit their accounts to the Commission, so some records may be absent: 94% of charities sent their accounts to us by the end of the financial year in March 2005.
  
• Where accounts cannot be accessed online, they can be obtained by contacting the charity trustees or our contact centre on 0845 300 0218.
  

"

So, Mr Petitioner, I suggest you try that instead of petitioning the prime minister for something that's already happening ...!