Keeping your name off the public register

Becoming a trustee makes you findable. Your name goes on a public register, and if your charity is a company, you appear at Companies House as well. For most people that is simply part of the deal. For some — someone who has left an abusive relationship, a trustee of a refuge, anyone who has been threatened because of what the charity does — it is a real safety problem. There are ways to have your details withheld, and this guide sets out what they are.

What is actually published about you

People often assume more is public than really is, and worry about the wrong thing. Here is the honest position for each register.

CIOs, SCIOs and unincorporated charities are not registered at Companies House, so the last row is not about them. Check whether you own a trading subsidiary, though, because that will be. Identity verification does not change any of this either: the evidence you give Companies House to verify yourself is not published.

The free fixes most people miss

Before applying for anything, check the boring things first, because two of the most sensitive entries can usually be changed for nothing.

Your service address at Companies House. A very large number of charity directors put their home address in as their service address when the company was set up, often years ago and often without realising there was a choice. That address is on the public record and it did not have to be. You can change it to the charity's own address at any time, free, with a change-of-details filing. It takes minutes, and it needs nobody's permission.

The charity's own registered address. This one catches people out, because it is published on all three charity registers and small charities routinely use the chair's or the treasurer's house. If that is you, your home address is public — not because you are named as living there, but because anyone can see it and work out the rest. Changing the charity's address is also free, and worth doing even if you use a trustee's business address or a virtual office instead.

Do both of these before you spend money on anything below.

England & Wales: applying for a dispensation

The Charity Commission will withhold a trustee's name from the public register, and it costs nothing to ask. But the bar is specific and it is high. The test is whether publication could put the person in personal physical or mental danger. Disliking being searchable, or wanting to keep your charity work separate from your job, will not meet it.

The Commission does not publish worked examples or success rates, so nobody can tell you your odds. What the test plainly rewards is specificity: a documented threat to a named person beats a general description of a risky sector every time.

How to apply

Email trusteedispensations@charitycommission.gov.uk with:

• the name or names of the trustees applying;
• the charity name and registration number, for each charity concerned;
• an explanation of how publishing the name creates the danger — be concrete, not general;
• supporting evidence, such as police reference numbers, a protective order, or correspondence showing the threat;
• confirmation that the other trustees have been told an application is being made.

The Commission aims to respond within 30 working days — but that is a response, not necessarily a decision, so do not plan around it as a deadline. A dispensation may be time-limited, and the Commission can review it if it receives a complaint, so it is not necessarily settled for good. If it is granted, the trustee is shown in the charity's annual report as "XX - Trustee with a dispensation" rather than by name. The Commission's guidance does not set out an appeal route if you are refused, so if the answer is no and the risk is real, go back to them with better evidence rather than assuming there is a formal appeal to make.

Scotland: applying to OSCR for an exemption

Scotland's position changed this year, and by more than most boards have noticed. From 9 March 2026, trustee first and last names appear on the charity's entry in the Scottish Charity Register — and, separately, accounts submitted from that date are published in full, without redactions. If your accounts carry trustee names or signatures, that second change may expose more than the register entry does. It is worth a look at what you last filed.

OSCR's test is whether publication is likely to jeopardise the safety and security of a person or premises. That covers premises as well as people, which matters for a charity operating from a location that needs to stay discreet. Information already in the public domain will not qualify. As with the Commission, general privacy preference, reputational worry, or simply being a private person are not enough — and, as with the Commission, applying is free.

Trustees, charity representatives and staff members can apply, using OSCR's online form. A separate application is needed for each charity you are a trustee of. You still have to give OSCR the details either way — the application is only about publication. There is a 28-day window to apply after you notify OSCR of the trustee information, and if you are refused you have 21 days to ask for a review.

Northern Ireland

CCNI publishes trustee names unless there are significant reasons not to, and it does not publish contact details for individual trustees. What it does not publish is any application form, any criteria for what counts as a significant reason, or any stated process. So there is no route to point you at. The sensible move, and it is a suggestion rather than an established procedure, is to contact the Commission directly, explain the circumstances, and do it before your details go up rather than after.

Companies House: the paid routes

If your charity is a charitable company, there is a separate set of applications, each with its own fee. They do different jobs and it is easy to buy the wrong one.

Fees and routes as published by Companies House, July 2026. Pay through GOV.UK Pay before submitting and quote the payment reference. Start the £100 applications from Companies House — applying to protect your personal information. Note the £15 row: it is for holding one protection and applying under the other section, not for a repeat of the same application at a second charity.

What SR01 can and cannot do

The suppression route opened in stages. Since 27 January 2025 you have been able to suppress a home address used as a registered office address from historical documents, and since 21 July 2025 four further categories: residential addresses shown elsewhere on the register in most instances, the day of your date of birth on documents registered before 10 October 2015, signatures, and business occupation. Documents registered after October 2015 already show only the month and year of birth, so that one is a historical clean-up rather than a new protection.

What SR01 will not do is take your name off the register. A separate route for people at personal risk of physical harm or violence — which would go further — has been announced by the government but, as at July 2026, no commencement date has been confirmed. If your situation depends on that route, it is worth asking Companies House directly where it has got to rather than waiting.

What to do this week

1. Look yourself up. Search your own name on the charity register and, if you are a charitable company, on Companies House. Most people have never done it and are surprised in one direction or the other.
2. Fix the addresses if a home address is showing — yours as a service address, or a trustee's house as the charity's registered address. Both are free to change, and this is the highest-value thing on the list.
3. Ask the question at a board meeting. Not "does anyone want privacy" — that gets a shrug — but "is there anyone for whom being publicly named would be a safety issue?" People will not always volunteer it, and a trustee who has left an abusive relationship should not have to raise it cold.
4. If someone is at risk, apply early and evidence it properly. Thirty working days for a first response at the Commission, and potentially months at Companies House, means a late application does not help anyone. Applying to the charity regulators costs nothing, so there is no reason to leave it late.
5. Minute the decision, not the detail. Record that the board considered trustee safety and supported an application. Do not write the underlying circumstances into a document you then publish with your accounts.

This guide is general information for trustees and committee members, not legal or personal-safety advice, and every situation is different. Fees, forms and commencement dates in this area are changing through 2025–2027 and some detail may shift, so always confirm the current position with the relevant regulator before acting. If you are at immediate risk, contact the police rather than starting with a registry application. Last reviewed July 2026.