Charity Commission announces statutory inquiry into Burke’s Peerage Foundation

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Burke’s Peerage Foundation over concerns about the charity, including its financial management.

The charity was established to advance education in the subject of genealogy and personal heritage.

The Commission has been in contact with the trustees since February 2022 after a separate inquiry into another charity, The Mahfouz Foundation, identified links with Burke’s Peerage Foundation.

A review of the charity’s bank statements and a comparison against its published accounts has resulted in the Commission’s decision to escalate its engagement with the charity to an inquiry. The inquiry will examine:

• The extent to which the trustees are complying with their legal duties in the administration, governance and management of the charity.
• The charity’s compliance with its legal obligations for the preparation and filing of its accounts and annual returns.

The Commission may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional issues emerge.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were.