The Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry into a training and qualifications charity that has failed to file accounts for its last three financial years.

The regulator had placed Crossfields Institute, which is based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, into its double defaulters class inquiry last year after failing to file accounting information for the financial years ending 31 March 2023 and 2024.

Those remain outstanding and the charity has defaulted further by failing to submit any accounts for its 2025 financial year.

The Commission says that during its engagement with the charity it has highlighted further concerns, including whether it is operating with enough trustees and has the “appropriate financial controls in place to manage risk to charity funds”.

“There are also concerns that the charity’s operations and activity may have been transferred to a non-charitable company,” said the Commission.

Its inquiry will look at the charity's governance, financial management, as well as issues around managing third party transactions and potential conflicts of interest.

Trustees’ decision making and record keeping will also be looked at.

The Institute has two trustees, according to the Charity Register and had a total income of £288,236 for the most recent year’s finances on record, for the 12 months to March 2022. Over this period it spent £278,197.

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