The Charities Act 2005 emphasises transparency and the availability of information about registered charities to “promote public trust and confidence in the charitable sector”.

The Act requires information on the Register to be available to the public. However, it also allows the Commission to prevent the public from seeing information if it is in the “public interest” to do so. For example, there could be circumstances where it would be in the public interest not to show the name of an officer on the Register in order to protect his or her safety.