The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into a Christian charity to investigate concerns raised about its governance and unauthorised payments to related parties.
According to the regulator’s announcement today, advisers of the Matt 6.3 Charitable Trust previously told the trustees they must cease all unauthorised payments to connected parties and appoint an independent board of trustees.
However, the commission said some payments continued to be made and the Grimsby-based charity, registered in 1998, has so far not recruited any independent trustees.
Furthermore, the charity’s latest accounts were submitted over 100 days late – like the previous year’s – and qualified, as the auditor had concerns over its governance.
After being initially notified of concerns in October last year, the regulator escalated its engagement with the charity to a statutory inquiry on 25 September 2025.
It will examine the extent to which the trustees are complying with their legal duties in respect to the management of conflicts of interest and private benefit.
The commission will also investigate whether the charity has appropriate policies and procedures in place and the extent to which the trustees have complied with previously issued professional advice.
It may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional regulatory issues emerge.
Serious incident report
According to Matt 6.3 Charitable Trust’s qualified accounts for the year to March 2024, it made several payments to related parties including to relatives of the charity’s trustees.
In its accounts, the charity said it had appointed a new accountant, who identified governance issues at the charity and for it to seek advice from a specialist charity lawyer.
The charity then submitted a serious incident report to the commission, on the lawyer’s advice, the accounts read.
“The trustees are looking forward to working with the Charity Commission to address the governance matters and are hoping to minimise the future impact on the charity,” the report reads.
The charity recorded an overall income of £1.67m and expenditure of £1.54m during the year.
