Number of Charities closing down

Summary

The request sought the number of charities that ceased operating in the Isle of Man for 2019, 2020, and 2021. The Attorney General's Chambers disclosed the specific counts for each year, noting that some closures involved mergers or asset transfers rather than total dissolution.

Key Facts

• The Attorney General became the registrar of charities on 1 April 2020 under the Charities Registration and Regulation Act 2019.
• In 2019, 7 charities ceased operating, with 3 merging or transferring assets to other charities.
• In 2020, 16 charities ceased operating, with 4 merging or transferring assets to other charities.
• As of 14 April 2021, 2 charities had ceased operating.
• The date of cessation is often presumed from file reviews rather than recorded precisely, especially for charities removed due to failure to file accounts.

Data Disclosed

• 2019
• 2020
• 2021
• 14 April 2021
• 1 April 2020
• 7
• 3
• 16
• 4
• 2
• 1746173
• Charities Registration and Regulation Act 2019
• section 15

Original Request

Could you please provide the number of charities that ceased operating in 2019, 2020 and so far this year.

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Attorney General's Chambers 2nd floor Belgravia House Circular Road, Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 1AE Telephone: (01624) 685452 E-mail: attgen@gov.im

Our ref: 1746173 16 April 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 12 April 2021 and which states:

"Could you please provide the number of charities that ceased operating in 2019, 2020 and so far this year."

Our response to your request is as follows: I have detailed below the information that is being released to you. Year ceased/presumed to have ceased operating Number of charities 2019 7 (of which 3 merged with, or transferred their assets to, other charities which continued their operations) 2020 16 (of which 4 merged with, or transferred their assets to, other charities which continued their operations) 2021 (as at 14 April) 2 The answer to this request has been provided from the records which the Attorney General holds in relation to his function as registrar of charities, which was vested in him on 1 April 2020. Records of institutions which had been registered as charities in the Isle of Man prior to that date were transferred to him from the Registrar General.
The Charities Registration and Regulation Act 2019 provides, in section 15, that the Attorney General must remove from the register, inter alia, (a) any charity which has ceased to exist and (b) any charity which, after reasonable inquiry, he or she considers to have ceased to operate. Prior to the coming into force of the substantive provisions of the 2019 Act, although there was no statutory requirement to do so, the practice of the Registrar General was to remove any charity which fell within (a) or (b). In the case of (a), which is the most common reason for removal, the information which is relevant to the removal is the fact, and date, of the charity ceasing to exist.
In many cases, particularly where there are a number of formalities to be concluded, such as winding up and dissolution in the case of a charitable company, the charity will have ceased operating several weeks, if not months, prior to its ceasing to exist. For this reason, the date of an individual charity having ceased to operate may not be

noted in our records and, for the purpose of responding to this request, will have been presumed from a review of the information held on its file. The removal of a charity in the case of (b) would usually occur as the final step in a lengthy process which would be triggered by multiple unsuccessful attempts to communicate with it following its failure to file its annual accounts and report. In those circumstances, it is unlikely that the date on which the charity ceased its operations would ever be known precisely. The Attorney General is required to publicise the removal of any charity from the register which occurred from 1 April 2020 onwards. This is done by updating the relevant entry on the charities index on our website (www.gov.im/charities) by including the statutory ground and date on which it was removed.

Please quote the reference number 1746173 in any future communications.

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I will now close your request as of this date.

Yours sincerely