UK regulator opens a safeguarding inquiry into the Jehovah's Witnesses' British charity

On May 27, 2014, the Charity Commission for England and Wales opened a statutory inquiry into the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain — the registered charity through which Jehovah's Witnesses operate in the United Kingdom — to examine how it handles the safeguarding of children.^[1]

The inquiry was opened under section 46 of the Charities Act 2011, the regulator's most serious investigatory power.^[2] The Commission said it was prompted by safeguarding concerns arising amid "recent criminal cases concerning historic incidents of abuse involving individuals who appear to have been connected to Jehovah's Witnesses congregations."^[1] One legal commentary tied the decision specifically to the conviction of an elder from the Moston (Manchester) area for historic sexual offences.^[3]

As part of the inquiry, the Commission issued an order under section 52 of the Act requiring the charity to produce its safeguarding documents.^[2][3] The stated scope was broad: the regulator said it would examine "the charity's handling of safeguarding matters, including the creation, development, substance and implementation of its safeguarding policy," and whether the trustees had complied with their duties under charity law.^[3]

The stakes ran beyond reputation. The Charity Commission regulates organizations that hold charitable status in England and Wales — and the tax advantages and public trust that come with it — and protecting the people in a charity's care, children above all, sits squarely within its remit. The question the inquiry set out to answer was whether the Watch Tower's trustees had policies adequate to safeguard children in the congregations the charity oversees, and whether they had met their legal obligations.^[2]

"The Commission's duty to protect public trust in charity has prompted it to open a formal inquiry to investigate these concerns," the regulator said.^[1]

The Watch Tower would go on to challenge both the inquiry and the production order in court — unsuccessfully. Over its course, the inquiry examined the charity's safeguarding policies and the conduct of its trustees, against the backdrop of the wider scrutiny the Witnesses were facing in courts and inquiries across several countries. It ran for nearly nine years before concluding in 2023 — among the longest statutory inquiries the Commission had undertaken, a measure in part of how hard the charity fought it at every turn.^[1][3]