Privacy Policy – Alnwick & District Choral Society

Alnwick and District Choral Society

Serious Incident Reporting Policy Statement

 

Alnwick and District Choral Society (ADCS) understands that the Charity Commission requires charities to report serious incidents*.

ADCS commits to prompt, full and frank disclosure to the Commission of any serious incidents. This is to include the actions that ADCS is taking to deal with the incident. This may be in addition to reporting it to the police, donors or another regulator.

*What is a serious incident?

 

A serious incident is an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in or risks significant:

  • harm to our charity’s beneficiaries, staff, volunteers or others who come into contact with your charity through its work (who are collectively referred to throughout this policy as people who come into contact with your charity through its work)
  • loss of our charity’s money or assets
  • damage to our charity’s property
  • harm to our charity’s work or reputation

For the purposes of this guidance, “significant” means significant in the context of our charity, taking account of its staff, operations, finances and/or reputation.

ADCS Trustees are responsible for reporting serious incidents in a timely manner. In practice, this may be delegated to someone else within the charity (or if necessary, a professional advisor).

 

ADCS will report an actual or alleged incident promptly. This means as soon as is reasonably possible after it happens, or immediately after ADCS becomes aware of it.

If ADCS decides not to make a report about something serious that has happened in your charity and the Commission later becomes involved, ADCS will need to be able to explain why it decided not to report it at the time.

Whistleblowing speaking out if you suspect wrongdoing.

 

ADCS members or others who suspect a serious wrongdoing within the organisation, for example criminal offences, malpractice/misconduct or health and safety breaches, they should raise this with the Trustees (in confidence), following the charity’s whistleblowing policy. If the charity fails to deal with concerns appropriately or members continue to suspect serious wrongdoing, it can be reported to the Charity Commission – including anonymously if preferred. In reporting concerns to the Commission, members may be protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. To find out more, read the Commission’s whistleblowing guidance.

Independent examiners of charity accounts have separate duties to report certain matters and related protections. For more information, read the Commission’s guidance on reporting matters of material significance and reporting relevant matters of interest to UK charity regulators.

What to report

 

The main categories of reportable incident are:

  • protecting people and safeguarding incidents – incidents that have resulted in or risk significant harm to beneficiaries and other people who come into contact with the charity through its work
  • financial crimes – fraud, theft, cyber-crime and money laundering
  • large donations from an unknown or unverifiable source, or suspicious financial activity using the charity’s funds
  • other significant financial loss
  • links to terrorism or extremism, including ‘proscribed’ (or banned) organisations, individuals subject to an asset freeze, or kidnapping of staff
  • other significant incidents, such as – insolvency, forced withdrawal of banking services without an alternative, significant data breaches/losses or incidents involving partners that materially affect the charity

ADCS Trustees must decide whether an incident is significant and should be reported. See Charity Commission Guidance on how to report serious incidents Charity Commission ‘How to report a serious incident’

Further

In the unlikely event of a serious incident occurring ADCS Trustees will refer throughout to the guidance Charity Commission ‘How to report a serious incident’. Also using further information and resources provided within this document.

 

 

Policy adopted on ………………28th August 2024………………. (date)

 

 

Next review ……………………………………….(date)

Alnwick and District Choral Society – Serious Incident Reporting Policy. This document is based on Charity Commission guidance on ‘how to report a serious incident’.

 Copyright 2025 – ADCS.