The Charity Commission has doubled the length of time it takes to deal with written enquires.

Earlier this year it pledged to acknowledge letters within two working days. But this has been extended to four working days.

A change in case management system earlier this year is behind the move, said the regulator.

“In February 2021, the Commission implemented a new case management system,” it said.

“With the change in system and different functionality it affords, we are no longer able to report performance as previously set out (two working days) so have taken the decision to align the definition of the standard (to four working days).”

It added that the new system links up its digital services that allow for written enquiries to be submitted and acknowledged electronically.

The relaxing of its threshold for responding to written enquiries has been revealed in an update to the regulator’s operational standards.

This adds: “We aim to acknowledge all written enquiries to the Commission within four working days and start work on our initial assessment.

“We will publish the volume of enquiries received and the percentage acknowledged in four working days in our annual report for 2020/1.”

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