The Charity Commission is expected to bid for several million pounds from government to register an extra 30,000 church charities over the next few years.
Church charities from several denominations, including the Church of England, are excepted from the normal requirement to register with the Commission if their income is over £5,000.
These organisations are regulated by the Commission but do not have to register unless their income passes £100,000.
The exception was due to expire this month, but Nick Hurd, minister for civil society, has laid a statutory instrument before Parliament extending the deadline for another seven years. The instrument will come into force at the end of this month.
The exception was originally due to expire in 1996, following changes introduced in the Charities Act 1993. However it has been extended several times, initially to 2001, then to 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2014.
The repeated extensions are largely due to the cost and difficulty of registering so many charities.
Commission to assess extra resources needed
A Charity Commission spokeswoman said her organisation wants the latest extension because it needed to assess the resources needed to register so many groups.
The cost of registering 30,000 extra charities is likely to be several million, although the Commission said it could not give an estimate. The Commission normally registers less than 5,000 charities in a year, and spends around £900,000 annually on registration staff. She said the Commission would need extra spending not just for the registration team, but to cover knock-on effects for other departments, such as its legal team.
The Commission intends to start voluntary registration well before 2021, but does not expect to have registered all churches by the time the deadline expires.
The spokeswoman said the regulator was preparing a bid to government for extra funds to manage the process.
“The Commission has begun work on our proposal to make sure that we are properly equipped to manage the demand,” she said. “This proposal will include a thorough costing taking into account the impact across all affected functions, not just registration.
“At this stage we cannot estimate what our final bid to the government will be.”
Five previously excepted denominations to register now
Around 300 previously excepted church organisations will have to register now.
The Church of the Nazarene, the Free Church of England, the Independent Methodists, the Wesleyan Reformed Union and the Churches of Christ, were part of the original group of excepted charities, but due to an oversight they did not have their deadline extended in 1996.
When this oversight was noticed, many years later, the churches were not required to register, but the commission is now advising them that they will have to do so.
Each of these groups has between 20 and 100 churches in England and Wales.
