CARLISLE DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE

Registered charity 251977 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as CARLISLE DBF, CARLISLE DIOCESE, DIOCESE OF CARLISLE

Resourcing the Church of England's mission and ministry primarily in the parishes of the Diocese of Carlisle and contributing towards the work of the Church nationally.

Objects

THE ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY, BOTH REAL AND PERSONAL BY GIFT SUBSCRIPTION, DEVISE, BEQUEST, PURCHASE OR OTHERWISE FOR THE SUPPORT, MAINTENANCE OR DEVELOPMENT OF, OR OTHERWISE FOR THE BENEFIT OF ANY CHARITY, CHARITABLE INSTITUTION, ORGANISATION, SOCIETY, ASSOCIATION OR FUND IN CONNECTION WITH THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, WHOLLY OR PARTLY WITHIN THE DIOCESE OF CARLISLE IN THE MANNER AS SET FORTH IN CLAUSE 3 OF THE MEMORANDUM OF ASSOCIATION.

Area of benefit: DIOCESE OF CARLISLE.

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Religious Activities · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Westmorland and Furness, North West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the charity reported a surplus of income over expenditure of £93,000 in the general fund before investment adjustments, with total net incoming resources of £1,780,000. Per the trustees' report, free unrestricted reserves stood at £2,213,000, which is below the stated policy target of two to four months of general fund expenditure. The charity remains a going concern with total funds of £88,596,000, though it notes challenges regarding voluntary income trends and the operational deficits of its Rydal Hall subsidiary.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Dodd & Co Audit Limited. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

In the news

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

• Carlisle Cathedral aiming to buy Diocese of Carlisle headquarters newsandstar.co.uk · 20/05/2016

Corporate structure

• Registered company of the charity Companies House 00039625

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Dave Roberts — Head of Communications (source)
• Derek Hurton — Diocesan Secretary (source)
• Ric Jaques — Deputy Diocesan Secretary and Head of Finance (source)
• Rachel Head — Director of Mission and Ministry, Support and Innovation (source)
• Kelly Hodkinson — HR Manager (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

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.

• HURLEY, Mark Robert William — director, appointed 17/09/2025on trustee list
• SANER-HAIGH, Robert James, Rt Rev — director, appointed 01/09/2025on trustee list
• HEBDON, Trevor — director, appointed 26/03/2025on trustee list
• HOPE, Charles Henry, Rev — director, appointed 01/01/2025on trustee list
• NEWTON, Ruth Elizabeth, Ven — director, appointed 01/08/2024on trustee list
• FYFE, Stewart John, The Venerable — director, appointed 24/01/2022on trustee list
• BUSK, Claire Janet — director, appointed 03/10/2019on trustee list
• BRADLEY, Derek John — director, appointed 01/01/2019not on trustee list
• ROSS, Vernon — director, appointed 25/02/2017on trustee list
• JOHNSON, James Alfred Earlam — director, appointed 16/07/2014not on trustee list
• HURTON, Derek Simon — secretary, appointed 01/11/2004

Official officers record.

Property (HM Land Registry)

229 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (221 freehold); recorded price paid £995k. All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/12/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.7 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (56% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 1.8% of total income — below the median for charities its size (3.7%) (benchmarks).

Register events

• Received assets from another charity (06/02/2023) — per the register’s event history; asset transfers typically record mergers or reorganisations.

Trustees · trustee networks

• Alastair Robert Hugh Cook · trustee of 2 other charities
• Claire Janet Busk · trustee of 1 other charity
• Derek John Bradley BSc FCA
• Mark Robert William Hurley · trustee of 1 other charity
• Nigel Rhyl Robson
• Rev Charles Henry Hope · trustee of 13 other charities
• Rev Ruth Elizabeth Newton
• Rev VERNON ROSS · trustee of 1 other charity
• Rt Rev Robert James Saner-Haigh
• The Venerable Stewart John Fyfe · trustee of 2 other charities
• Trevor Hebdon · trustee of 2 other charities

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

Operates in: Cumbria

Income and spending

Common questions

Known funders

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

Government & lottery funding

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

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.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE ELY DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE.

• THE ELY DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE income £11.4m
• THE LIVERPOOL DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE income £14.6m
• THE CHESTER DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE income £14.5m
• THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF STOKE GIFFORD income £2.2m
• THE PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST MARTIN CAMBERLEY income £113k
• PORTSMOUTH DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE income £9.4m

Side by side with its peers

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