The Charities Act 2022: What Changed

The Charities Act 2022 is a UK statute that amends the Charities Act 2011 to give charity trustees wider powers over their governing documents, land, permanent endowment and payments to trustees, and to give the Charity Commission new powers to put right procedural mistakes. It was commenced in stages between October 2022 and November 2025, and every tranche in the government's implementation plan has now been brought into force — subject to one carve-out on the final tranche, set out below.

That last point is worth stating plainly, because a lot of sector guidance still describes the ex gratia payment provisions as outstanding. They are not. Sections 15 and 16 commenced on 27 November 2025, the last date in the implementation plan — though the plan records that they were commenced with an exception for certain statutory institutions, which is covered below.

Nothing in the Act obliges a charity to do anything new. It is almost entirely enabling — it gives trustees powers they did not previously have, and removes procedural hurdles that used to require a trip to the Commission. What it changes for most small charities is what is now possible without asking permission.

The commencement dates

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's implementation plan sets out the tranches. There are five commencement dates, not four — the fifth, 19 May 2025, appears in the plan's footnotes rather than as a listed tranche of its own.

Date	Provisions, as the plan lists them
31 October 2022	Section 4: Power to amend Royal Charters · Section 5: Orders under section 73 of the Charities Act 2011 · Sections 6 and 7: Cy-près powers · Section 8: Power of the court and the Commission to make schemes · Section 30: Remuneration of charity trustees etc providing goods or services to charity · Section 32: Trustee of charitable trust: status as trust corporation · Section 36: Costs incurred in relation to Tribunal proceedings etc · Part of Section 37: Public notice as regards Commission orders etc. · Part of Section 40 and Schedule 2: Minor and consequential amendments
14 June 2023	Sections 9-14 and 35(a): Permanent endowment · Sections 17, 19-22: Charity land · Sections 25-28: Charity names · Section 38 and 39: Connected persons · Part of Section 40 and Schedule 2: Minor and consequential amendments
7 March 2024	Section 1-3: Charity constitutions · Sections 18(*) and 23: Charity land · Section 24 and Sch 1: Amendments of the Universities and College Estates Act 1925(**) · Section 29: Powers relating to appointments of trustees · Section 31: Remuneration etc of charity trustees etc · Sections 33, 34 and 35(b): Charity mergers · Section 37: For remaining purposes · Section 40 and Schedule 2: For remaining purposes
19 May 2025	Given in the plan's footnotes, not as a listed tranche: section 18(1) (for remaining purposes), (2)(b) and (3)(b) — charity land · Section 24 and Schedule 1 — Universities and College Estates Act 1925
27 November 2025	Sections 15 and 16: Ex gratia payments

The two footnotes to the 7 March 2024 row are what create that fifth date, and they are easy to miss:

(*) "Section 18(1) (in part), (2)(a), (2)(c) and (3)(a) will come into force on 7 March 2024. Due to the provisions being linked to section 24 and Schedule 1, section 18(1) (for remaining purposes), (2)(b) and (3)(b) will come into force on 19 May 2025."

(**) "Section 24 and Schedule 1 will come into force on 19 May 2025."

So section 24 and Schedule 1 are listed under 7 March 2024 but did not commence then; and section 18 was split across two dates. Any summary that reproduces the bullet without the footnote gets both wrong.

The plan records one carve-out on the final tranche: these sections were commenced "with the exception of certain statutory institutions, including relevant museums and galleries, which have existing legislation that prevents them from disposing of items from their collections except in very limited circumstances."

Changing your governing document without asking first

For most small charities this is the change that matters.

Before March 2024, an unincorporated charity — a trust or an unincorporated association, which is what a great many small charities are — had limited and awkward statutory routes to amend its own trusts. Section 3 of the 2022 Act replaced them, omitting sections 267 to 280 of the Charities Act 2011 and inserting new sections 280A and 280B in their place. It came into force on 7 March 2024.

The new power is broad. Under section 280A, "The charity trustees of such a charity may, if they are satisfied that it is expedient in the interests of the charity, resolve that the trusts of the charity should be amended."

The limits are on which amendments need the Commission's blessing. Changes falling into the "regulated alterations" category still require written consent, and section 280A(8) sets out seven categories, not four. It is worth checking a governing document against all seven. The subsection applies to an amendment:

• "which would alter the purposes of the charity";
• "which would alter a provision directing the application of property of the charity on its dissolution";
• "which would provide authorisation for any benefit to be obtained by charity trustees or members of the charity, or persons connected with them";
• "which would alter a restriction making property permanent endowment";
• "which would require the consent of a person other than" a charity trustee of (or trustee for) the charity, or a member of the charity, "if made otherwise than by virtue of this section";
• "which would affect any right directly conferred by the trusts of the charity on a person who" is "named in the trusts of the charity" or "holds an office or other position specified in the trusts of the charity (other than that of charity trustee or member of, or trustee for, the charity)"; and
• "which would confer power on any person or persons to make an amendment falling within any of paragraphs (a) to (f)".

The approval thresholds matter too. Where the charity has a membership distinct from its trustees, the trustees resolve by majority and the members must then approve by a further resolution — and section 280A(5)(b) gives three routes for that further resolution, not one. It may be passed "at a general meeting, by not less than 75% of the members entitled to attend and vote at the meeting who vote on the resolution"; or "at a general meeting, by a decision taken without a vote and without any expression of dissent in response to the question put to the meeting"; or "otherwise than at a general meeting, by the agreement of all the members entitled to attend and vote at a general meeting". That middle route — nem con at a general meeting, with no vote taken — is a lawful route a lot of guidance leaves out, and the third route requires the agreement of every member entitled to attend and vote, which the statute does not require to be given in writing. Where there is no separate membership, 75% of the trustees must approve.

The practical upshot: if your governing document has an outdated quorum, an object clause that no longer reflects what you do, or a trustee term limit that is causing problems, you now have a workable route to fix it. Tidying an out-of-date governing document is one of the more useful things a small board can do in a quiet year.

Paying trustees for goods, not just services

Section 185 of the Charities Act 2011 has long allowed a charity to pay a trustee for services provided to the charity, subject to conditions. It did not extend to goods, which produced the odd result that a trustee who was a plumber could be paid to fit a boiler but a trustee who ran a builders' merchant could not be paid for supplying the pipe.

Section 30 of the 2022 Act fixed this by inserting "goods or" before references to services throughout section 185. That includes the section heading, which as in force now reads "Remuneration of charity trustees or trustees etc. providing goods or services to charity", and Conditions A and B, where "services" was replaced with "goods or services, or goods and services". It commenced on 31 October 2022.

The conditions have not been relaxed, and they are worth stating as section 185 actually puts them, because they are commonly paraphrased loosely:

• Condition A — the amount or maximum amount is set out in a written agreement between the charity (or its trustees) and the person providing the goods or services, and "does not exceed what is reasonable in the circumstances for the provision by P of the goods or services, or goods and services, in question."
• Condition B — before entering into that agreement, the trustees "decided that they were satisfied that it would be in the best interests of the charity for the goods or services, or goods and services, to be provided by P to or on behalf of the charity for the amount or maximum amount of remuneration set out in the agreement."
• Condition C — a minority test, not a non-participation test: trustees who are being paid under such an agreement, are otherwise entitled to remuneration, or are connected to someone who is, must together "constitute a minority of the persons for the time being holding office as charity trustees of the charity."
• Condition D — "The trusts of the charity do not contain any express provision that prohibits P from receiving the remuneration."

Section 185 also requires trustees to have regard to Commission guidance before entering into such an agreement, and applies the Trustee Act 2000 duty of care to the Condition B decision.

Keeping the interested trustee out of the decision is sound practice, and most boards do it — but it comes from the general duty to manage conflicts of interest, not from a condition in section 185. The 2022 change widens what can be paid for, not the process for approving it. Our guide to whether charity trustees can be paid sets out how the conditions work in practice.

Ex gratia payments — the tranche everyone thinks is still pending

Sections 15 and 16 deal with ex gratia payments: situations where trustees feel a moral obligation to make a payment or transfer property, but have no legal power to do so — the classic case being a will where the deceased clearly intended to change a charitable bequest and died before doing it.

Previously every such payment needed the Commission's authorisation, whatever the amount. Section 15 inserts new sections 331A and 331B into the Charities Act 2011, giving trustees a power to act without applying where three things hold: the value does not exceed a threshold, the trustees have no other legal power to take the action, and "in all the circumstances the charity trustees could reasonably be regarded as being under a moral obligation to take the action."

The thresholds are tied to the charity's gross income in its last financial year:

Gross income	Maximum without an application
Up to £25,000	£1,000
£25,001 – £250,000	£2,500
£250,001 – £1 million	£10,000
Over £1 million	£20,000

Above those figures, an application to the Commission is still required. The Secretary of State can change the thresholds by regulations, so check the current figures before relying on them.

These sections commenced on 27 November 2025. If your charity has been sitting on a small moral claim it never pursued because the application looked disproportionate to the amount, it is worth revisiting.

Land, mergers and permanent endowment

Three further areas changed, all more relevant to charities with property or history than to a typical small operating charity.

Land disposals. Spread across three dates rather than one. Sections 17 and 19 to 22 commenced on 14 June 2023; section 23 and part of section 18 followed on 7 March 2024; and the remainder of section 18 — subsection (1) for remaining purposes, (2)(b) and (3)(b) — commenced on 19 May 2025, because it is tied to section 24 and Schedule 1. If your charity is contemplating a sale, the requirements are not what they were before June 2023, and the right move is to check current Commission guidance for the transaction rather than assume the pre-2023 position still holds.

Mergers. Also in the 7 March 2024 tranche. The changes concern the register of mergers and how legacies to a charity that has since merged are treated.

Permanent endowment. Sections 9 to 14 and 35(a), in force from 14 June 2023. Relevant only to charities that hold permanent endowment, which most small operating charities do not.

For any of these three, the Commission's own guidance on the specific transaction is the place to start — the implementation plan links to it, and the detail matters more than a summary can carry.

What a small charity should actually do about it

Realistically, three things:

1. Read your governing document once. If it has provisions that no longer work, you now have a route to change them that does not start with an application. Note which of your intended changes are regulated alterations — those still need consent.
2. Check your conflicts process covers goods as well as services. If your conflict of interest policy or trustee code of conduct was written before October 2022 and says "services", it is now narrower than the law. Our charity policies guide covers which policies need reviewing and when.
3. Stop treating the Act as forthcoming. Every tranche in the implementation plan has now been commenced, subject to the ex gratia carve-out for certain statutory institutions noted above. Guidance that describes the ex gratia provisions as awaiting commencement predates November 2025 and should be read with that in mind.

None of this changes the underlying duties. Trustees still act in the charity's best interests, still manage resources responsibly, and still comply with the governing document — the six main trustee duties are unaffected. The 2022 Act changed the toolkit, not the job. If you want to check how your board is doing against current good practice more broadly, our free governance code self-assessment works through all eight principles of the 2025 Code.

---

This guide covers charities registered in England and Wales. The Charities Act 2022 does not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland, which have their own charity legislation and regulators. This is general guidance based on the published Act and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's implementation plan — amending a governing document or making an ex gratia payment has consequences specific to your charity, and a solicitor with charity experience is the right person to confirm them.

Sources

• Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Charities Act 2022 implementation plan
• Charities Act 2022 — full text
• Charities Act 2022, section 3 — amendment of unincorporated charities' trusts
• Charities Act 2011, section 280A — as inserted
• Charities Act 2022, section 30 — remuneration for goods or services
• Charities Act 2011, section 185 — remuneration of trustees providing goods or services
• Charities Act 2022, section 15 — small ex gratia payments
• Charities Act 2011, section 331A — as inserted (ex gratia thresholds)