How many trustees do I need, and who should they be?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full. Scotland: the same recruitment, but three things run differently — trustee names are now published on the public register, a SCIO’s constitution must provide for at least three charity trustees by law, and the trustee-payment power works the opposite way round from England and Wales. See below. Northern Ireland: covered in full — the expectation on trustee numbers and the route to paying a trustee are both established, each on its own statutory footing — see below.

Two things to tell a prospective trustee before they say yes

You may be recruiting trustees for a new charity in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. Tell each one two things before they say yes. One is how much personal data registration demands. The other, in Scotland, is that OSCR will publish their name.

Founders often leave both until they put the application together, when they assemble the evidence pack. They belong here, before anyone agrees to serve. This page assumes you have already decided whether to start a charity. What each trustee personally takes on is covered in understand what you are personally taking on.

Start with the personal data. Registering a charity requires each trustee’s full name, home address, date of birth, previous names and contact details. Most of this is not published, but the charity and the regulator hold all of it.

Some would-be trustees assume this is a light, name-only commitment. They should be told otherwise before they say yes, not when the form lands in front of them.

The second is specific to Scotland, and it is new. The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, s.3(3), as amended, now requires the Scottish Charity Register to publish the name of EACH of its charity trustees — NEW from 5 March 2026. That means more than the charity’s own principal contact. A narrow exclusion route is open at registration or later.

It applies where OSCR is satisfied that publication would be likely to jeopardise the safety or security of a person or premises. A single trustee can apply for it, not only the charity. A trustee recruited for a Scottish charity working in a sensitive field should hear about this before they agree to serve. Then they can apply for exclusion with the registration, not as an afterthought.

When a trustee can be paid, and when not

Being a trustee is a voluntary role. Can charity trustees be paid? has the full rules. This section covers what founders need before they recruit. No general power lets a charity pay someone for holding the office. Such payment needs express authority in the governing document or from the Charity Commission. The Commission expects it only in exceptional, temporary circumstances.

Founders get this point wrong most often. So here it is stated precisely, not as a blanket rule.

A separate power covers a narrower, more common case. That is paying a trustee, or a connected person, for supplying goods or services to the charity. The Charities Act 2011, s.185(3), draws the line in the statute itself, verbatim:

“This section does not apply to any remuneration for services provided by a person in the person’s capacity as a charity trustee or trustee for a charity or under a contract of employment.”

So a trustee who is also a plumber can be paid, under this power, to fix the charity’s boiler. The same person cannot be paid, under this power, for turning up to board meetings. All four of these conditions must be met. The one founders most often trip over is the third:

• The amount is fixed in a written agreement and is no more than reasonable.
• The trustees decided beforehand that the arrangement was in the charity’s best interests.
• Immediately after the agreement, all remunerated trustees and persons connected with them together constitute a MINORITY of the trustees holding office
• The governing document does not expressly forbid the person receiving it.

On a small founding board, two paid trustees can breach the minority condition on their own. Arrangements that are each reasonable can add up to a board that is no longer independent of the people it pays.

Trustee payment in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland does not extend the same power with tighter conditions. It starts from the opposite rule. Its four conditions look similar at first glance (one of them: the maximum amount is set out in a written agreement and is reasonable in the circumstances). But the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, s.67(1), frames the whole thing as a ban rather than a right.

It expressly catches what England and Wales excludes. Paying someone to be a trustee, and paying a trustee-employee, both fall inside the Scottish gateway, not outside it. Scotland has also not been extended from services to goods, unlike the England and Wales power. Advice that treats the two systems as one rule with different numbers gets the structure wrong, not just the detail.

Northern Ireland has its own four-condition route. It sits under the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008, ss.88–90. Its structure is close to the England and Wales power, but not the same. As in England and Wales, this power does not cover payment for acting as a trustee or under a contract of employment. That payment needs another legal basis.

Two points are worth knowing before you recruit. First, the trustees must have regard to Commission guidance before entering the agreement. Second, any trustee who stands to benefit is disqualified from taking part in the decision to approve it. If they do take part, the arrangement stays valid. But the Commission can order the remuneration repaid.

The minimum number of trustees in each nation

Only Scotland’s law sets a minimum above one trustee, and only for a SCIO. 3 is the floor a SCIO’s constitution must provide for, under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, s.50(2)(b). It is a real legal requirement, not a template default.

Everywhere else, “three” is what the model document suggests, not what the law demands. In England and Wales, the Charities Act 2011 sets the CIO’s own statutory floor at 1. The Act’s own words go no higher. But the CIO regulations and the Commission’s model constitution may expect more in practice. This research pass did not read them.

In Northern Ireland, CCNI puts it plainly. If the governing document is silent, a charity “must have at least one charity trustee,” and CCNI recommends at least three as best practice. This is a recommendation, not a statutory count.

None of this is advice to run a board of one. It is a reason not to repeat “three trustees” as though it were a rule everywhere it is quoted.

In most of the UK it is a habit borrowed from a template. Only in Scotland is it the law. How many trustees does a charity need? sets out the practical case for more.

Why a board of friends and family cannot manage conflicts

Recruit beyond friends and family. A board with no independent member cannot manage a conflict of interest. Recruiting from one social circle takes little time, and everyone already trusts the founder. That is why it is worth resisting.

In England and Wales, CC3 sets out 6 trustee duties in outline. Among them are:

• acting in the charity’s best interests
• managing its resources responsibly
• being accountable

The six trustee duties sets these out in full. Trustees are also expected to manage conflicts of interest properly. The duty to avoid a conflict is a fixed part of being a trustee.

Regulators also expect a board to be able to show a written conflicts policy and register. You adopt a conflicts of interest policy once the charity is running.

Suppose each trustee is related, or each is a personal friend of the founder. That board cannot manage a conflict of interest when one arises. No independent person is left in the room to make the decision.

The registration form asks directly whether any trustee or connected person will benefit personally. A board drawn wholly from one social circle makes that question harder to answer honestly, not easier.

A would-be trustee who worries about personal liability has some protection. A charity may take out trustee indemnity insurance from its own funds to cover a trustee’s honest mistakes. But the cover cannot extend to:

• fines
• a criminal conviction for fraud or dishonesty
• conduct a trustee knew was against the charity’s interests

Mention the insurance to anyone weighing whether to say yes.

Once your founding trustees have agreed to serve, the next step is to check trustee eligibility for each of them.

Common mistake: telling a prospective trustee they can be paid for the role

The statutory power to pay trustees is real. Founders who have heard of it assume it covers the role itself. It covers paying for goods or services supplied to the charity.

It expressly does not cover remuneration for acting as a trustee, or under a contract of employment. Paying someone for serving as a trustee needs express authority in the governing document, an order, or another statutory provision.

Common mistake: planning to pay several trustees for services

Each arrangement can look reasonable on its own. A founding board often includes people with useful skills to sell.

One statutory condition is that all paid trustees, with anyone connected to them, remain a minority of the board. On a small founding board, two paid trustees can breach it. An agreement still counts while any obligation under it is undischarged.

Common mistake: recruiting only friends and family

They are on hand, they trust the founder, and recruiting them takes little time. A board of connected people cannot manage conflicts of interest. And the registration form asks directly whether any trustee or connected person will benefit personally.

Regulators have found charities where each trustee was related. Payments made to those trustees broke the law. The same close ties make the minority condition on trustee payment almost impossible to meet.

Common mistake: leaving trustee recruitment until the application

It feels like admin, so it gets put off. Each trustee must be named, eligible and must wet-sign a declaration. Recruiting against a deadline gives you a board chosen because people were free, not for their judgement.

Worked example

A founding trustee is a qualified electrician. They cannot be paid for being a trustee without express authority in the governing document. Under the statutory power, they can be paid to rewire the charity’s premises if all of these are true:

• there is a written agreement at a reasonable rate
• the other trustees decided beforehand it was in the charity’s best interests
• the paid trustees remain a minority of the board