Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008

Register of charities

16.—(1) The Commission shall keep a register of charities.

(2) Every institution which is a charity under the law of Northern Ireland must be registered in the register of charities.

(3) The register shall be kept by the Commission in such manner as it thinks fit.

(4) The register shall contain—

(a) the name of the charity,

(b) if the charity is a designated religious charity within the meaning of section 165, a statement to that effect, and

(c) such other particulars of, and such other information relating to, the charity as the Commission thinks fit.

(5) The Commission shall remove from the register—

(a) any institution which it no longer considers to be a charity, and

(b) any charity which has ceased to exist or does not operate.

(6) If the removal of an institution under subsection (5)(a) is due to any change in its trusts, the removal shall take effect from the date of that change.

(7) The register (including the entries cancelled when institutions are removed from the register) shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable times.

(8) Where any information contained in the register is not in documentary form, subsection (7) shall be construed as requiring the information to be available for public inspection in legible form at all reasonable times.

(9) If the Commission so determines, subsection (7) shall not apply to any particular information contained in the register that is specified in the determination.

(10) Copies (or particulars) of the trusts of any registered charity as supplied to the Commission under section 17 shall, so long as the charity remains on the register—

(a) be kept by the Commission, and

(b) be open to public inspection at all reasonable times.