The Charity Commission has confirmed that the current automatic disqualification rules which only apply to trustees will be strengthened later this year with new disqualification reasons and an extension of the scope of the rules.

Currently existing rules extend to trustees only and protect charities from being run by people who meet certain criteria or have specific unspent convictions and who are not authorised by a Charity Commission waiver to serve as a trustee.

The changes introduce new disqualification reasons, and will for the first time also stop disqualified people from being able to act in some charity senior manager positions. These include for the first time tighter rules on who can take jobs as chief executives (or equivalent) and chief finance officer (or equivalent) positions.

Anyone who will be disqualified when the new rules change on 1 August 2018 can apply for a waiver of the disqualification using the application form that will be available on the Charity Commission website from 1 February 2018.

Charities will need to update their recruitment checks to avoid appointing or retaining disqualified individuals as trustees or into senior manager positions.

Detailed guidance explaining the new rules will be published by the end of January 2018.