THE BRITISH DIABETIC ASSOCIATION

Registered charity 215199 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as DIABETES CYMRU, DIABETES ENGLAND, DIABETES NORTHERN IRELAND, DIABETES SCOTLAND, DIABETES UK, DIABETES UK CYMRU · also registered in Scotland as SC039136 (OSCR)

Diabetes UK is the leading charity for people with diabetes in the UK. We champion the rights of people with diabetes to ensure they get the standards of healthcare they deserve. We provide information and support to people with diabetes and their carers and fund vital medical research into the condition.

Causes: Education/training · The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Latest income

£38.4m

Latest spending

£44.1m

Registered

1967

Accounts read

FY2024

Financial health, per its FY2024 accounts

The accounts state that total income reduced by £4.3 million to £38.4 million, primarily due to a significant dip in legacy income. Expenditure decreased by £5.3 million to £44.1 million following a strategic change programme that included 66 redundancies. The charity reports a net expenditure for the year of £6.0 million and holds £8.0 million in unrestricted reserves, with liquid reserves of £12.2 million within their stated policy range.

Automated summary of the FY2024 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Highest-paid employee band: £130,001 - £140,000 — above the median for charities its size (£130k)

“£130,001 - £140,000 1” — page 93

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Reserves policy: four months projected forward cashflows (£11 million – £14 million) (held: £8.0m)

“During the year, we reviewed our reserves policy and confirmed our minimum tolerable level of liquid reserves to arange of £11 million — £14 million, which is equivalent to four months projected forward cashflows.”

Per its FY2024 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Crowe UK LLP. Discloses 5 of 6 completeness components.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

An unconventional Will – lessons from The British Diabetic Association vs Chenery mishcon.com · 29/01/2025
Population screening for diabetes mellitus. Professional Advisory Committee of the British Diabetic Association pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · 14/06/2020
British Diabetic Association Golden Anniversary - Richard Trustram Eve & Nick Scaramanga - Bystander photos tatler.com · 14/10/1984

Corporate structure

Registered company of the charity Companies House 00339181
Trading subsidiary: DIABETES UK SERVICES LIMITED Companies House 00891004

DIABETES UK SERVICES LIMITED — per its own Companies House accounts

Turnover: £9.4m
Profit before tax: £960k
Donated/gift-aided to the charity: £960k
Debtors include £120k due from ultimate parent undertaking.

“A gift aid payment to Diabetes UK of £960k (2024: £368k) has been recorded in the accounts.”

Company officers (Companies House)

Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.

WOOLNOUGH, Sarah — director, appointed 20/05/2026on trustee list
BOYNE, George, Professor — director, appointed 03/07/2025on trustee list
EVANS, Mark Lewis, Professor — director, appointed 03/04/2025on trustee list
MURALI, Kris — director, appointed 01/02/2024not on trustee list
JARVIS, Sian Elizabeth — director, appointed 25/05/2023on trustee list
FOULDS, Emma Jane Wilson — director, appointed 30/03/2023on trustee list
DEWHURST, Martin John — director, appointed 30/03/2023on trustee list
HIGHAM, Matthew — director, appointed 30/03/2023on trustee list
ALI, Sarah Neshat, Dr — director, appointed 26/05/2022on trustee list
HOMDEN, Carol Ann, Dr — director, appointed 01/01/2022not on trustee list
YUNUS, Asiya, Dr — director, appointed 30/09/2021on trustee list
BAULD, Linda Caroline, Professor — director, appointed 30/09/2021not on trustee list
LEWIS, Alexandra Morton — director, appointed 30/09/2021on trustee list
GIBBS, Michael — director, appointed 30/09/2021on trustee list
GRAY, Melanie Stephenson — director, appointed 01/01/2021on trustee list
GALVIN, Graham Patrick William — secretary, appointed 09/02/2017

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

4 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (1 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (324,466 followers) · instagram (120K followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2024)

Total income

£38.4m

Total spending

£44.1m

Cost of raising funds

£13.0m

Reserves (reported)

£5.4m

Employees

429

Reported reserves equal ~1.5 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 33.8% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 3.8%) (benchmarks).

Register events

Received assets from another charity (23/03/2026) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
Received assets from another charity (24/01/2025) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
Received assets from another charity (28/10/2024) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.
Received assets from another charity (22/11/2021) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

Alexandra Morton Lewis
Dr Asiya Yunus
Dr Carol Homden CBE
Dr Sarah Neshat Ali
Emma Jane Wilson Foulds
Krishnaswamy Murali · trustee of 2 other charities
Martin John Dewhurst
Matthew Higham
Melanie Stephenson Gray
Michael Gibbs
Professor George Boyne
Professor Linda Caroline Bauld OBE
Professor Mark Lewis Evans
Sarah Woolnough
Sian Elizabeth Jarvis

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/12/2024	£38.4m	£44.1m
31/12/2023	£42.7m	£49.4m
31/12/2022	£42.1m	£42.0m
31/12/2021	£37.9m	£37.4m
31/12/2020	£37.7m	£36.7m

Common questions

Is THE BRITISH DIABETIC ASSOCIATION financially healthy?

Per its FY2024 accounts: The accounts state that total income reduced by £4.3 million to £38.4 million, primarily due to a significant dip in legacy income. Expenditure decreased by £5.3 million to £44.1 million following a strategic change programme that included 66 redundancies. The charity reports a net expenditure for the year of £6.0 million and holds £8.0 million in unrestricted reserves, with liquid reserves of £12.2 million within their stated policy range. Its FY2024 accounts were audited by Crowe UK LLP.

What does the highest-paid employee of THE BRITISH DIABETIC ASSOCIATION earn?

Per its FY2024 accounts, the highest-paid employee was in the £130,001 - £140,000 band.

Who funds THE BRITISH DIABETIC ASSOCIATION?

Funders whose own accounts filings name THE BRITISH DIABETIC ASSOCIATION as a grant recipient include THE ALBERT GUBAY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION, THE LIDBURY FAMILY TRUST, CECIL PILKINGTON CHARITABLE TRUST, THE IAN ASKEW CHARITABLE TRUST, GOWLING WLG (UK) CHARITABLE TRUST.

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
THE ALBERT GUBAY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION	FY2023	£100k
THE LIDBURY FAMILY TRUST	FY2024	£35k
CECIL PILKINGTON CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£3k
THE LIDBURY FAMILY TRUST	FY2025	£1k
THE IAN ASKEW CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	£1k	Grant
THE IAN ASKEW CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2023	£1k
GOWLING WLG (UK) CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	£500
SSP FOUNDATION	FY2022	£500

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
The National Lottery Community Fund	05/12/2022	£447k	Engaging Diabetes Communities
The National Lottery Community Fund	15/07/2022	£8k	Men Making Meals
UK government	23/07/2020	£99k	Coronavirus Community Support Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund	29/06/2020	£191k	Reaching Out - Supporting people with diabetes impacted by COVID-19
Sport England	18/05/2020	£801k	RG Physical Activity Project
The National Lottery Community Fund	15/05/2020	£10k	COVID-19 – Pilot Volunteer Befriender Service in Northern Ireland
The National Lottery Community Fund	16/05/2019	£10k	Type 1 Family Weekender Bolton
The National Lottery Community Fund	30/10/2018	£430k	Our Lives, Our Voices
Community Foundation North East	17/05/2016	£300	To support the activities of Diabetes UK in the North East of England
The National Lottery Community Fund	10/11/2010	£424k	The Diabetes UK Healthy Lifestyles Roadshow
The National Lottery Community Fund	16/06/2010	£2k	Healthy Eating Cookery Course for People With Diabetes
The National Lottery Community Fund	02/06/2008	£2k	Havering FAmily Diabetes Group
The National Lottery Community Fund	14/06/2006	£4k	Laptop and Projector
The National Lottery Community Fund	17/08/2004	£4k	Conference
The National Lottery Community Fund	22/04/2004	£1k	Educational Holidays

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
THE CADOGAN CHARITY	3	£95k
The Trevor Hemmings Foundation	3	£50k
SIR SAMUEL SCOTT OF YEWS TRUST	3	£33k
THE SIMON GIBSON CHARITABLE TRUST	3	£28k
DAVID LISTER CHARITABLE TRUST	3	£19k
DORIS FIELD CHARITABLE TRUST	3	£8k
The Squire Patton Boggs Charitable Trust	3	£900
Evelyn Partners Charitable Trust	3	£700

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with PRIMARY CARE DIABETES SOCIETY.

PRIMARY CARE DIABETES SOCIETY income £169k
DIABETES CARE TRUST (ABCD) LIMITED income £391k
THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PEDIATRIC AND ADOLESCENT DIABETES income £1.2m
JUVENILE DIABETES RESEARCH FOUNDATION LIMITED income £8.0m
ALZHEIMER'S RESEARCH UK income £61.9m
PARKINSON'S DISEASE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM income £48.6m

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
THE BRITISH DIABETIC ASSOCIATION	£38.4m	£130,001 - £140,000	—	within	—	no doubt
PRIMARY CARE DIABETES SOCIETY FY2025	£169k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
DIABETES CARE TRUST (ABCD) LIMITED FY2025	£391k	£40,568.10	—	above	—	no doubt
THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR PEDIATRIC AND ADOLESCENT DIABETES FY2024	£1.2m	—	0	above	—	material uncertainty
JUVENILE DIABETES RESEARCH FOUNDATION LIMITED FY2025	£8.0m	—	—	below	—	no doubt
ALZHEIMER'S RESEARCH UK FY2025	£61.9m	£190,001 - £200,000	—	within	29.5%	no doubt

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.