Who Is Fit to Lead a Charity? New Proposals to Strengthen Trustee Disqualification Powers
The government has launched a consultation on strengthening the Charity Commission's powers to prevent individuals involved in extremism, hatred and certain serious offences from holding leadership positions within charities.
Published on 14 October 2026, the proposals could expand the circumstances in which individuals are disqualified from acting as charity trustees or senior managers in England and Wales.
But beyond the proposed legislative changes, this raises a much wider question:
How confident are charities that the people responsible for their governance, leadership and safeguarding are suitable to hold those positions?
What is being proposed?
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is consulting on amendments to the existing charity disqualification framework.
The proposals would strengthen the Charity Commission's ability to take action where individuals present risks arising from extremist activity or other serious misconduct.
The proposed changes include:
1. Automatic disqualification for additional offences
Certain hate-related offences, national security offences and offences involving false or misleading information supplied to the Charity Commission would be added to the existing automatic disqualification framework.
This would mean individuals meeting the relevant statutory conditions could be automatically prevented from acting as trustees or senior managers, subject to applicable provisions concerning spent convictions, waivers and transitional arrangements.
2. Wider discretionary disqualification powers
The Commission would gain additional grounds for considering disqualification where individuals promote or encourage violence or racial or religious hatred.
The proposals also address certain circumstances involving deprivation of British citizenship or exclusion from the UK.
3. Stronger protection of charitable organisations
The government intends to make it easier for the regulator to intervene where individuals may pose a serious risk to a charity, its beneficiaries, its assets or public confidence in the sector.
These measures are currently proposals.
They are not new disqualification requirements already in force.
The consultation closes on 23 December 2026.
Why is this relevant to safeguarding?
Charity safeguarding is often associated with frontline activities.
We think about protecting children and adults at risk, responding to disclosures, managing allegations, safer recruitment and ensuring staff and volunteers understand their responsibilities but safeguarding is also fundamentally a governance responsibility.
Trustees and senior leaders influence the culture, priorities and decisions of an organisation, they determine whether safeguarding concerns are taken seriously, oversee organisational risk, approve policies and allocate resources, set expectations for conduct, accountability and challenge, and they have a responsibility to ensure that the charity operates in a way that protects its beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and others who come into contact with its work.
A charity cannot rely on strong frontline safeguarding procedures if its leadership arrangements are ineffective or compromised.
Safeguarding begins with leadership suitability
Many charities have established recruitment procedures for staff and volunteers but are the same principles of appropriate scrutiny, suitability and accountability applied to trustees and senior managers? Trustees hold positions of significant influence.
Depending on the organisation, they may oversee services supporting children, adults with care and support needs, people experiencing homelessness, survivors of abuse, or individuals experiencing exploitation.
Their decisions can directly influence the safety and wellbeing of those individuals.
Charities should therefore be asking:
How do we assess the suitability of prospective trustees?
Are existing disqualification checks undertaken appropriately?
Do trustees understand their legal responsibilities?
Are conflicts of interest identified and managed?
Do we have effective processes for responding to concerns about trustee conduct?
Is safeguarding risk considered within governance discussions?
Can trustees demonstrate appropriate challenge and oversight?
A declaration of eligibility may form part of the process, but effective governance should not stop at obtaining a signed form.
The distinction between DBS checks and trustee eligibility
One area where confusion can arise is the relationship between trustee eligibility and DBS checking. These are not the same thing.
Being eligible to act as a charity trustee does not automatically mean an individual is eligible for an enhanced DBS check.
DBS eligibility depends on the activities undertaken and the applicable legal criteria.
Likewise, a DBS certificate is not a substitute for checking whether an individual is disqualified from charity trusteeship.
Charities need to understand both frameworks and apply them appropriately.
This is particularly important following the 2026 changes to regulated activity with children and the Charity Commission's updated safeguarding guidance.
What about extremism and organisational culture?
The consultation focuses on extremist abuse of charitable status and conduct involving violence or hatred.
This is an important area of governance, but it also requires careful and proportionate consideration.
Charities often work with diverse communities, including people holding a wide range of religious, political and personal beliefs.
Organisations must distinguish between lawful beliefs or expression and conduct that creates genuine risks or falls within relevant legal restrictions.
Safeguarding decisions should be evidence-informed, fair and consistent with equality and human rights obligations.
The objective should not be to create suspicion around particular communities or identities.
It should be to ensure that people holding positions of authority act lawfully, responsibly and in accordance with the charity's purposes and obligations.
What should trustees be doing now?
Although the consultation has not yet resulted in legislative change, it provides a useful opportunity for charities to review their existing governance arrangements.
We would encourage trustees and senior leaders to consider five areas.
1. Trustee recruitment and suitability
Are checks appropriate, documented and consistently applied?
2. Understanding disqualification
Do trustees understand the existing automatic and discretionary disqualification framework, including the requirement to disclose relevant circumstances?
3. Safeguarding governance
Does the board receive meaningful safeguarding information, including emerging risks, allegations, organisational learning and assurance findings?
4. Responding to concerns
Are there clear procedures for raising concerns about trustees or senior leaders, including circumstances where normal reporting routes may be compromised?
5. Evidence of effective oversight
Can the charity demonstrate that trustees actively scrutinise safeguarding arrangements, rather than simply approving policies annually?
Beyond compliance: what does good safeguarding governance look like?
Strong governance is not measured solely by whether a charity has the correct documents.
It is demonstrated through leadership behaviour and organisational decisions.
Are trustees asking difficult questions?
Are they seeking assurance that safeguarding arrangements work in practice?
Are they listening to the experiences of beneficiaries and staff?
Are they challenging gaps in practice?
Are they ensuring that concerns result in appropriate action and organisational learning?
And crucially, are they prepared to act when concerns involve people in positions of power?
Safeguarding governance must be about accountability, not simply oversight on paper.
Our final reflection
The government's consultation provides an opportunity to consider how charity leadership suitability is assessed and regulated.
But the broader safeguarding message is relevant to every charitable organisation.
The people responsible for safeguarding governance must themselves be subject to appropriate standards of suitability, integrity and accountability.
Trustees have a significant responsibility to protect the people who depend on their organisations.
That responsibility requires more than good intentions.
It requires informed leadership, appropriate scrutiny, professional challenge and a commitment to creating a culture in which concerns can be raised and acted upon, because effective safeguarding starts at the top.
How RLB Safeguarding can help
At RLB Safeguarding Ltd, we support charities and voluntary organisations with safeguarding governance, independent audits, trustee training, policy reviews, safer recruitment and leadership assurance.
Our work helps organisations move beyond having safeguarding arrangements in place to understanding whether those arrangements are genuinely effective.
Safeguarding people of all ages, in all places. Beyond compliance.
Sources
Government consultation: Extension of the Charity Commission's powers to tackle extremism
Charity Commission: Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees