Skip to content
Governance Register
Sign inFind yourself
Find yourselfSign in
Search How it works For organisations For professionals

Edition

United Kingdom (current)IrelandUnited StatesNew ZealandCanadaAustraliaScotlandNorthern Ireland

Registered charity · United Kingdom

The British Council

The British Council is a registered charity (number 209131) based in United Kingdom, governed by 11 trustees and chaired by Dr Paul Thompson CBE since 2024. Latest income £1010m (2025). Source: Charity Commission register, updated 11th October 2026.

  • 11 trustees
  • Income £1010m (2025)
How am I connected?
More
View network map Report an issue

The people who lead this organisation are listed below. Create a free account to save it, get alerts and check how you are connected.

Official record Charity Commission · updated 11th October 2026 · Sources · Free, no card or password

Network

The large node is The British Council. Red nodes are organisations, white nodes are people. Dashed links are historical or inferred. Click any node to explore.

Who leads it

Current trustees as listed by the Charity Commission, which does not publish previous trustees.

Do you help lead this organisation? Set up its network · How it works

People on this board also govern

Similar charities are matched by type of organisation or purpose and listed by latest income; shared trustees are formal board links. Neither is proof the organisations work together.

About

What it does
Education/training, Overseas Aid/famine Relief, Arts/culture/heritage/science, Other Charitable Purposes
Where
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina and more
Website
www.britishcouncil.org (opens in a new tab)
Registered
1963

Income and spending

  • YearIncomeSpending
  • 2025£1010m£1054m
  • 2024£989m£1055m
  • 2023£873m£925m
Earlier years
  • 2022£897m£942m
  • 2021£925m£1015m

Income trend, 2021 to 2025.

Income source mix, 2025: Government contracts 1% · Government grants 22%. From the charity's annual return.

Charitable objects

THE OBJECTS FOR WHICH THE BRITISH COUNCIL IS ESTABLISHED AND INCORPORATED ARE TO ADVANCE, FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT, ANY PURPOSE WHICH IS EXCLUSIVELY CHARITABLE AND WHICH SHALL:(A) PROMOTE CULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND OTHER COUNTRIES;(B) DEVELOP A WIDER KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; AND(C) ENCOURAGE EDUCATIONAL CO-OPERATION BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND OTHER COUNTRIES, SUPPORT THE ADVANCEMENT OF UNITED KINGDOM EDUCATION AND EDUCATION STANDARDS OVERSEAS, AND OTHERWISE PROMOTE EDUCATION.

Grants received

53 grants · £35,727,822 total

360Giving data, published by funders. Coverage only includes funders who publish their grants to 360Giving, so these figures are a floor, not a complete picture.

Top funders

  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport · £13,965,553 (6 grants)
  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport · £11,757,200 (3 grants)
  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office · £3,025,855 (9 grants)
  • Pears Foundation · £2,888,345 (5 grants)
  • Department for International Development · £2,297,664 (6 grants)

Most recent

  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office £100,9402025-02-26
  • Garfield Weston Foundation £150,0002025-01-27
  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office £222,8502024-11-22
  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office £24,7222024-08-14
  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office £949,9562024-05-29

Contracts awarded

3 contracts · £140,000 total

From Contracts Finder and Find a Tender (Open Government Licence v3.0), where this organisation is recorded as the buyer. Suppliers are matched to a Governance Register company or charity page at confidence 0.7 or higher; below that they are shown by name only.

Top suppliers

  • Unknown supplier · £140,000 (3 contracts)

Most recent

Board analysis

Board DNA

How this board is put together, from Charity Commission trustee records and Companies House - deterministic, no AI.iBoard compositionCounted from the dated Charity Commission trustee register: the current board only, past trustees excluded.

2.2y median 1y
average tenure
5y
longest tenure
0
trustees past 6 years
5.9y
average years in governance

First-time vs portfolio trustees

First-time (9)

Portfolio (2)

4
company-linked trustees

Sector coverage iSector coverageThe charitable fields this board's trustees govern in elsewhere, by Charity Commission classification. Excludes this charity.

Education/training 11Arts/culture/heritage/science 9Overseas Aid/famine Relief 9Accommodation/housing 1Religious Activities 1The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives 1The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty 1

Commercial experience iCommercial experienceThe industries this board's members are company directors in, by Companies House SIC code. Excludes this organisation's own company.

Education 2Health and social care 2Arts and leisure 1

Succession forecast iSuccession forecastThe number of board seats likely to open in the next twelve months - summed across the board from each dated trustee’s tenure - and the profile worth recruiting next. From the filed record, deterministic.

🔒 Succession forecast is a Pro feature - the board seats likely to open in the next year and the ideal next trustee. Explore Pro →

Health of the organisation facts side by side - the conclusion is yours

Income v spending, filed accountsiIncome v spendingTotal gross income and expenditure from filed annual returns, Charity Commission, last 5 years.
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
incomespending£1010.4m latest income · spending exceeded income in 2024 and 2025
ReservesiReserves12 x free reserves / annual expenditure, from the Part B annual return. The sector median is computed across all Part B filers in the same income band.

0.0 months of spending held in free reserves · median for charities its size: 3.5 months

9446 from 11131 in 2021
EmployeesiEmployeesHeadcount as filed in Part B annual returns, per financial year. Shown exactly as filed; year-on-year figures may be filed on different bases, so a comparison is only shown when the filings are plausibly comparable.
24%
Income from governmentiIncome from governmentGovernment contracts plus government grants as a share of total gross income, latest Part A annual return.
54 days
Latest accounts filed after the due dateiFiled after the due dateDate the accounts were received minus the reporting due date, latest filed cycle, Charity Commission register.

Sources

Official record from the Charity Commission register for England and Wales. Governance Register calculates the connections.

Record details
Registered charity number
209131
Status
Registered
Governing document
ROYAL CHARTER GRANTED 07/10/1940AS AMENDED BY SUPPLEMENTAL CHARTER DATED 26/11/1993AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 22/07/1976AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 05/10/1983AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 27/10/1993AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 04/12/1984AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 16/07/2002AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 08/06/2011AS AMENDED BY ORDER IN COUNCIL DATED 15 DEC 2021 as amended on 26 Oct 2021
Contact on the register
(0)161 884 0291 · CEO.Office@britishcouncil.org
Edition
Register edition compiled 11th October 2026
Labels
Official record from the register · Calculated derived by Governance Register. Anything added by an organisation or person is labelled as provided by them.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Report an issue · How we handle data