What must we legally say about public benefit?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full — two separate obligations under reg. 40 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Scotland: covered, but the mechanism is different — one achievements narrative under the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006, and no separate statement about guidance; see below. Northern Ireland: covered, under its own instrument — the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 set their own two obligations; see below.

Where does the public benefit statement duty come from?

In England and Wales, the public benefit statement comes from regulation 40 of the 2008 accounts regulations, not from section 17 of the Charities Act 2011. Northern Ireland and Scotland have their own rules, further down. Start with the citation, because a great deal of guidance gets it wrong. The statement takes its achievements from your impact report; what public benefit means for your own charity is set out under show public benefit.

Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011, which applies in England and Wales, is where public benefit guidance lives. Most of it places duties on the Charity Commission: to issue the guidance, revise it, consult on it and publish it. Only one subsection places a duty on trustees. Section 17(5) reads as follows, verbatim.

“The charity trustees of a charity must have regard to any such guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.”

That is a duty to have regard, not a duty to report. It says nothing about what goes in your annual report. A reader who follows that citation looking for the reporting duty finds nothing.

In England and Wales the reporting duty is regulation 40 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008, SI 2008/629. Regulation 40 sets out what the trustees’ annual report must contain.

One more trap in the numbering. In England and Wales, regulation 40 refers to “section 4 of the 2006 Act”. That is the old home of the have-regard duty, now section 17 of the 2011 Act.

It is not section 4 of the 2011 Act. That section is the public benefit requirement itself — the rule that every charity’s purposes must be for the public benefit. Public benefit in the three jurisdictions explains it.

England and Wales: two obligations, not one

“The public benefit statement” is two separate obligations, and charities routinely merge them into one. In England and Wales, under regulation 40, the annual report must do both.

First: your activities and achievements, framed as public benefit. This is regulation 40(2)(b), for England and Wales. Where a charity’s accounts do not have to be audited, the report must be a brief summary. The regulation’s words are these, verbatim.

“be a brief summary setting out— (aa) the main activities undertaken by the charity to further its charitable purposes for the public benefit; and (bb) the main achievements of the charity during the year.”

A charity whose accounts must be audited gives a fuller review instead. It must include, verbatim, “details of the achievements of the charity during the year, measured by reference to the aims and objectives which have been set”.

Second: a separate statement about the guidance. This is regulation 40(2)(c)(ii), again for England and Wales. The report must do the following, verbatim.

“contain a statement by the charity trustees as to whether they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the 2006 Act to have due regard to guidance published by the Commission.”

A report that does the first and leaves out the second is non-compliant. The second is the one more commonly missed. It is one sentence, and it is easy to assume the narrative already covers it. It does not.

So write them as two headed items. Something like “Public benefit” for the narrative, and a separate short paragraph for the statement.

Here is an example: “The trustees confirm that they have had due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit”. It is an illustration, not a regulator’s wording. The Commission’s own guidance on public benefit reporting, PB3, is free to read and is the place to check it.

How low is the bar for the smallest charities?

The bar is lowest for charities whose accounts do not have to be audited. Look again at the two versions of the first obligation. A charity whose accounts must be audited reports achievements “measured by reference to the aims and objectives which have been set”. Every other charity reports “the main achievements of the charity during the year”.

That audited-charity wording is the closest UK law comes to requiring a charity to measure anything. It binds only charities whose accounts must be audited. For everyone else in England and Wales the duty is a brief summary of the main activities and the main achievements. That is a much lower bar than most sector material implies.

Whether your charity is audited turns on the England and Wales accounts thresholds, and those thresholds are changing in 2026. This page does not restate them. The charity accounting thresholds sets them out, and The 2026 threshold changes explains what moves and when.

Where the SORP comes in, and where it draws the line on impact

The Charities SORP applies across the UK to charities preparing accruals accounts. It restates the same two public benefit items in its own list for the annual report.

At Tier 1, the list includes explaining the main activities for public benefit. It includes confirming regard to the Commission’s public benefit guidance, in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland. It also says the report “must contain a summary of the main achievements of the charity”. The trustees “should” consider how the work made a difference to beneficiaries’ circumstances, and whether it provided wider benefits to society.

Tier 1 covers charities with gross income at or below £500,000. The tiers are cumulative: Tier 1 is not a shortened Tier 2, and each tier above it adds items.

The full list is on Establish which tier you are in and what your report must contain. The tiers themselves are on SORP 2026 and the three tiers. Neither is repeated here.

One point matters here more than anywhere: whether a Tier 1 charity has to explain its impact. The SORP’s text answers it.

Its operative Module 1 text puts the duty to “explain the impact the charity is making” under the heading “Tier 2 – in addition to tier 1 requirements”. Tier 1’s own obligation is a summary of main achievements, with the questions about the difference made framed as things that “should be considered”.

The position to publish is this.

A summary of main achievements is a “must” at every tier. An explicit impact explanation is a Tier 2 requirement. At Tier 1, the SORP says the trustees should consider the difference the work made. So a Tier 1 charity that includes a paragraph on it is on safe ground, and one that says nothing may be asked why.

This page is not going to pick a side, in either direction. If writing a short paragraph on the difference your work made would take an hour, writing it is the cheaper course.

Northern Ireland: its own duty, and its own second statement

Northern Ireland does not borrow England and Wales’ rule. It has its own, in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, SR 2015/384.

First: the activities narrative. This is SR 2015/384 regulation 32(2)(b). The Northern Ireland annual report must contain a summary. It explains the following, verbatim.

“(i) the main activities undertaken by the charity to further its charitable purposes for the public benefit; and (ii) the main achievements of the charity during the year”

Second: a separate statement. This is SR 2015/384 regulation 32(2)(c). The Northern Ireland report must also, verbatim, “include a statement as to whether the charity trustees have complied with the duty to have regard to the guidance issued by the Commission under section 4(1)”. That is section 4(1) of the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008.

On its face, regulation 32 covers Northern Ireland charities on the receipts and payments basis, and grant-aided schools. Regulation 33(2) of SR 2015/384 then applies both requirements to Northern Ireland charities that prepare a full statement of accounts. So the two obligations reach the general run of Northern Ireland charities, not just the small ones.

The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland publishes guidance on exactly this point: ARR08, “The trustees’ annual report and public benefit reporting”. This guide confirmed that it exists and what it covers, but did not read its content, so it quotes nothing from it. Read it directly.

One caution. Northern Ireland’s SR 2015/384 exists on legislation.gov.uk only in its original form, with no record of later changes at all. Treat any amendment since 2015 as unknown rather than absent.

Scotland: one narrative, and no second statement

Scotland works differently, and the risk runs the other way.

Take a Scottish charity on the receipts and payments basis. The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (SSI 2006/218) set its report content, in reg 9(1)(d) and Schedule 2.

Paragraph 9 of that Schedule asks for, verbatim, “A summary of the main activities of the charity undertaken and achievements in the financial year”. Schedule 2’s list never uses the words “for the public benefit”. For a Scottish charity preparing accruals accounts, OSCR says in terms that the SORP sets the content instead.

The link to public benefit comes from OSCR, not from the regulations. OSCR’s guidance puts it this way, verbatim.

“Charities must describe the work that they do, and their achievements, in their Trustees Annual Report. This information allows the public to see how much public benefit arises from a charity’s activities; it is also important because it requires all charity trustees to review their purposes, activities and achievements annually.”

The reason is Scotland’s charity test. Sections 7 and 8 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 set the test. It is ongoing, not a one-off hurdle at registration. OSCR treats the same achievements narrative as both report content and continuing evidence that the charity meets the test.

There is no separate statement in Scotland. No Scottish rule asks trustees to declare that they have had regard to guidance.

That was checked three ways for Scotland: Schedule 2, OSCR’s current guidance on report content, and the 2005 Act. So do not add one by analogy with England and Wales. It would be inventing a requirement that does not exist.

One newer point bears directly on how you write. It is section 45B of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. The Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023 inserted it, and SSI 2026/98 brought it into force in Scotland on 5 March 2026. It says that OSCR must do the following, verbatim.

“(a) keep any copy of a statement of account and independent report on accounts sent to it under section 44(1)(d) for at least 5 years from the end of the financial year to which the document relates, and (b) during the period for which the copy is so kept, make it available for public inspection”

A Scottish charity’s statement of account includes its annual report. OSCR now publishes it as sent, beyond a narrow exclusion for safety concerns.

OSCR’s own guidance makes the point. Before you submit, it says, verbatim, “you may want to consider if it is appropriate to include the names and images of other volunteers or beneficiaries”. That is OSCR’s advice on drafting, not a ban on naming anyone. Identifying who your beneficiaries are covers how to describe them.

The Scottish receipts and payments ceiling decides which route applies. It is not printed here, because the regulations’ own original text shows a figure that is no longer current. The charity accounting thresholds has the current one.

What has not been established

Two things this page cannot tell you, and one now settled, stated plainly so that none of them is mistaken for an answer.

• What the Commission treats as inadequate. Where the Charity Commission has found a charity’s public benefit reporting deficient, and what it said, was not examined for this guide. This page gives no examples of failure, because it has none it can source.
• Regulation 40’s wording. SI 2008/629, the England and Wales regulations, is on legislation.gov.uk only in its original form. But the site’s list of changes affecting the regulations records amendments to other regulations and none to regulation 40. The regulation 40 text quoted above is that original text, and it still refers to the 1993 and 2006 Acts. Under the Interpretation Act 1978, those references are read as pointing to their Charities Act 2011 replacements.
• Whether SR 2015/384 has been amended. The Northern Ireland regulations have the same problem: original text only, nothing to check against.

How to write the public benefit statement

The table shows what each nation asks for, and the numbered steps take you from those rules to a checked statement.

Nation	Where the duty sits	Activities and achievements narrative	Separate statement about guidance
England and Wales	SI 2008/629, regulation 40	Yes, framed as furthering the purposes for the public benefit	Yes — regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance
Northern Ireland	SR 2015/384, regulation 32, applied to full accounts by regulation 33(2)	Yes, framed the same way	Yes — regard to the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland’s guidance
Scotland	SSI 2006/218, reg 9(1)(d) and Schedule 2; the SORP for accruals accounts	Yes — a summary of main activities and achievements, not framed as public benefit	No

1. Find your nation. England and Wales, Northern Ireland, or Scotland. A cross-border charity checks each nation it reports in.
2. In England and Wales or Northern Ireland, write two headed items. The activities and achievements narrative, framed as furthering your purposes for the public benefit. Then the separate statement about regard to the guidance of the Charity Commission (England and Wales) or the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland.
3. In Scotland, write one narrative. Main activities and achievements. No second statement. Think about names and photographs before you submit, because OSCR will publish it.
4. Take the achievements from your impact report. What changed, for whom, in contribution language.
5. Decide about impact. If you are at Tier 1, a short paragraph on the difference made is safe ground either way.
6. Have it checked. Your independent examiner or auditor reads the report with the accounts.

Tool: SORP tier checker (planned). Template: TAR narrative sections (planned). Until both exist, Draft the narrative sections of your report has the full Tier 1 checklist.

With the statement drafted, the trustees approve the trustees’ annual report as a whole. The next step in this hub, reporting to a funder in their format, reuses the same achievements.

Common mistake: citing Charities Act 2011 s.17 as the source of the England and Wales reporting duty

This project’s own brief did it. In England and Wales, section 17 is where public benefit guidance lives, so it looks like the obvious citation.

But that section contains no reporting duty: its subsection (5) is a duty to have regard to Commission guidance. In England and Wales the reporting duty is regulation 40 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Readers who follow the wrong citation find nothing about reporting.

Common mistake: writing the activities narrative and leaving out the separate statement

The public benefit statement is two obligations routinely merged into one. In England and Wales, regulation 40(2)(b) is the narrative framed as furthering the purposes for the public benefit. Regulation 40(2)(c)(ii) is a separate statement: whether the trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard to the Commission’s guidance.

A report that does the first and omits the second is non-compliant, and the second is the more commonly missed. Northern Ireland has its own pair: SR 2015/384 regulation 32(2)(b) and (c).

Common mistake: assuming a small charity must measure its achievements to comply

The sector implies a measurement duty, and the audited-charity wording gets quoted as if it applied to everyone. In England and Wales, achievements “measured by reference to the aims and objectives which have been set” binds only charities whose accounts must be audited. For every other charity the duty is a brief summary of main activities and main achievements. Which applies turns on a money-hub threshold, not restated here.

Common mistake: writing that impact reporting is — or is not — required of a Tier 1 charity

The SORP’s operative text puts an explicit impact explanation under Tier 2, and asks Tier 1 trustees to consider the difference their work made. Writing that it is required at Tier 1 overstates the SORP. Writing that a Tier 1 charity need say nothing about the difference made ignores what it asks trustees to consider.

So a Tier 1 charity that includes a paragraph on it is on safe ground, and one that says nothing may be asked why. This applies across the UK.

Worked example

Tollgate Youth CIO is in England and Wales, with income in the small band. Its treasurer drafts the public benefit section of the trustees’ annual report.

She writes two items, not one. The first is headed “Public benefit”. It briefly sets out the main activities Tollgate undertook to further its purposes for the public benefit. Then it gives the year’s main achievements. The achievements come from the “what changed” section of Tollgate’s impact report, and they say “contributed to”.

The second is a separate short paragraph. It is the trustees’ statement of whether they have had due regard to the Commission’s public benefit guidance.

Whether a charity’s accounts are audited decides which version of the first item applies. Tollgate is below the audit threshold and has an independent examiner, so the brief-summary version applies. She confirms that on the money pages rather than from a figure in her head.

If Tollgate prepares accruals accounts, it sits in Tier 1 of the SORP. The SORP does not require it to add an explicit impact explanation, but it asks the trustees to consider the difference made. A short paragraph on the difference the youth work made costs little, so she writes one.

The outcome: a public benefit section in two visibly separate parts, checked by Tollgate’s independent examiner. The England and Wales regulation 40 text she worked from is the original as-made text, which legislation.gov.uk’s list of changes shows unamended. What the Commission has found inadequate was not examined for this guide, so the page offers no examples of failure.