Charities’ views are being sought to assess their vulnerability to terrorist financing.

The consultation has been launched by the Charity Commission for England and Wales with support from the other UK regulators.

Findings from the consultation, which closes at the end of this month, will be fed into the government action to tackle money laundering and terrorist funding of weapons.

This is part of global efforts to tackle terrorist funding through inter-governmental body The Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The findings will also be used to direct the government’s future engagement with charities on the threats they face from terrorist funding.

“Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs) are an integral part of our society,” states the consultation.

“They do vital and important work, and we want to help them do this safely. The purpose of this questionnaire is to help the UK better understand potential threats and vulnerabilities that the NPO sector may face.”

Questions focus on whether charities believe the sector is at risk from terrorist funders and the methods such finances may deploy to use charities.

This includes to what extent fundraising by charities can be directed to terror groups.

Charities are also being aske to what extent their other activities, such as running programme and activities, are at risk.

Whether there is a risk of links between charity leaders and terror groups is another issue being considered.

The threat of “sham” charities set up to falsely illicit donations is another.

Also being looked at is whether charities have “weak internal controls” to ensure they can reduce the threat of being used by terrorist funders.

Charities with risk mitigation processes and protections in place are being asked to give details.

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