The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland has started its pilot registration scheme with 20 Northern Irish organisations

The scheme will test-drive the Commission’s online registration system and processes prior to full registration beginning later this year.

The pilot will last till around November, giving charities time to prepare and submit the documents proposing their charitable status to the Commission.

If the charities are successful they will be confirmed by the regulator and compiled on its website at www.charitycommissionni.org.uk.

The pilot is the latest move affirming the new regulator's role in the country. This summer the Commission granted its first consents around governing documents to local charities under the Charities Act (Northern Ireland) 2008.

Guidance and application forms from the Commission on consents and unincorporated organisations will be published on its website soon, in liaison with H&M Revenue and Customs.

It can now also make cy-prés schemes regardless of the value of the property involved, due to the Charities Act 2008 (Transitional Provision) Order (Northern Ireland) 2013, which came into effect in August. Previously a scheme involving more than £50,000 would have been made by the High Court and for less than that amount by the Department for Social Development.

The new Transitional Provision Order means the Commission has jurisdiction over a higher number of charities. It previously had jurisdiction over about 6,500 charities registered with HMRC.

The new order means that the Commission has jurisdiction over all organisations that have registered with HMRC for charitable tax purposes as of 19 August 2013.

Puman McGookin, head of charity services at the Commission, said: “This test phase is a new chapter both for the Commission and for charity regulation in Northern Ireland as a whole, marking the first steps toward beginning compulsory registration of all Northern Ireland charities.”