The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has confirmed Dame Julia Unwin as Chair of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The Secretary of State, The Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, has appointed her for a three‑year term running from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028, following a pre‑appointment hearing on 25 November. The announcement was made on 3 December 2025.
Parliament scrutinised the nomination through the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. After questioning the Government’s preferred candidate at a pre‑appointment hearing on Tuesday 25 November 2025, the Committee issued its endorsement on 27 November and said it looks forward to ongoing scrutiny engagement. The transcript and the Committee’s statement are publicly available.
DCMS states that the appointment has been made in line with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments and is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity in the previous five years must be declared; the Government notice records that Dame Julia Unwin declared none.
Remuneration for the role is £62,500 per annum for a time commitment of two and a half days per week. The appointment announcement sets out the process and role profile but does not signal immediate changes to regulatory policy or guidance.
As Chair, Dame Julia will lead the Commission’s Board and oversee delivery of the regulator’s statutory objectives under the Charities Act 2011, including increasing public trust, promoting trustee compliance and enhancing accountability. In exercising its functions, the Commission operates independently of ministers.
The Charity Commission is a non‑ministerial department sponsored by DCMS. Under Schedule 1 to the Charities Act 2011, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport appoints the Chair and other Board members, with competitions run against the Governance Code and using Advisory Assessment Panels.
The scale of the regulator’s remit remains significant. Official data show 171,153 charities on the register at the end of September 2025, with total annual income of about £104 billion and expenditure of £103 billion. Across 2024–25 the Commission regulated £102 billion of charity income and £101 billion of spend.
Dame Julia previously served as a Charity Commissioner in the late 1990s and as Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation between 2007 and 2016. She has been a Board Member of the Financial Reporting Council and chaired its Codes and Standards Committee, chaired the Civil Society Futures Inquiry which reported in 2018, and was appointed DBE in 2019 for services to civil society.
She also chairs the Board of Governors at York St John University and is the inaugural Chair of Smart Data Foundry, a not‑for‑profit company wholly owned by the University of Edinburgh that uses private‑sector financial data for public good.
At the pre‑appointment hearing, Dame Julia emphasised the need to protect the Commission’s independence from both Government and the sector and acknowledged the practical challenge of proportionate regulation across roughly 170,000 charities. She committed to early engagement with Parliament and clear communication of decisions.