Charity Commission website
Figures show sector spending last year was £48bn and assets were worth more than £160bn
The Charity Commission has unveiled a new ‘overview’ section on its website in a bid to increase transparency in the voluntary sector.
The section contains a wealth of facts, figures and graphs about the voluntary sector in England and Wales, including figures showing that total spending last year was £48bn, the sector’s assets are valued at more than £160bn and there are more than 940,000 trustees serving 162,000 charities.
The top 50 charities under various categories, including spending and number of employees and volunteers, can also be found.
The site shows that the conservation charity BTCV is the charity that has the most volunteers - 592,000. The Wellcome Trust is the biggest in terms of spending, having spent £728m in the past year, and investment, with long-term investments worth £14.6bn.
The regulator says the new pages, which complement the existing online register, are part of its efforts to encourage transparency and accountability in the sector.
Sam Younger, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: "It is right and proper that the public are able to scrutinise how their money is being spent. Our online register of charities acts as a powerful consumer tool to provide information to the public and help them make informed decisions about their giving and support, and makes charities clearly accountable to their donors.
"The web pages allow the public to search the information we hold in more creative ways, seeing which charities are growing the fastest, and which have the most volunteers or most charitable spend."
