THE POLICE FOUNDATION

Registered charity 278257 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register

Improving policing for the benefit of the public by: Undertaking credible quality applied research of direct relevance to policy and practice;Hosting events and independent enquiries into specific policing issues;Offering training and consultancy to help the police and others transfer evidence and knowledge into policy and practice; andDisseminating key issues through publications etc.

Objects

THE ADVANCEMENT AND PROMOTION OF EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE POLICINGTO UNDERTAKE AND PROMOTE STUDY AND RESEARCH INTO THE METHODS ORGANISATION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE POLICE AND THE TRAINING OF POLICE OFFICERS AND TO PUBLISH THE USEFUL RESULTS OF SUCH STUDY AND RESEARCH

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED

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

Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Economic/community Development/employment · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Westminster, London, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that unrestricted funds decreased by £96,000 to £376,000 due to unrestricted expenditure exceeding income, a trend attributed to a temporary drop in fundraising activity during a director transition. The charity holds free reserves of £371,000, which the Trustees consider to be in line with their policy of maintaining six to twelve months of general expenditure. The going concern basis is adopted with no material uncertainties identified.

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

What the accounts disclose

Accounts independently examined (not a full audit). 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.

Annual return filing dates (Charity Commission record)

Of its last 5 annual returns with a recorded received date, 1 was received after the due date: year ending 30/06/2025 (received 12/05/2026, 12 days after the 30/04/2026 due date).

Due and received dates as recorded in the Commission’s annual-return data; the data does not say whether an extension was agreed. Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/06/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~5.8 months of spending — above the median for charities its size (median 5.2 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (94% 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: 0.0% of total income — below the median for charities its size (4.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Andrew Tivey
• Dame SARA THORNTON DBE QPM
• HUGH SHERRIFFE · trustee of 1 other charity
• LORD DHOLAKIA OF WALTHAM BROOKS PC OBE DL
• MARY-JANE CALAM · trustee of 2 other charities
• Martin Innes
• Michael Cunningham CBE QPM
• PROFESSOR NICHOLAS FYFE
• Stephen Rimmer

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

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

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 ESSEX POLICE FORCE BENEVOLENT FUND.

• ESSEX POLICE FORCE BENEVOLENT FUND income £49k
• THE INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH income £201k
• CHRISTIAN POLICE ASSOCIATION income £133k
• THE ROYAL MILITARY POLICE MUSEUM TRUST income £95k
• THE POLICE MEMORIAL TRUST income £138k
• THE CENTRE FOR SOCIAL POLICY STUDIES income £132k

Side by side with its peers

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