Help centre / Reports & assurance / Red lines: the things that always show
Red lines: the things that always show
Red lines are serious problems, like a missed statutory filing or no safeguarding lead. They appear in the "Immediate attention" panel at the top of the Assurance page and stay there until fixed. Forty passing checks can never hide one. No panel means none are live.
Most governance problems can wait for the next meeting. A few can't. CharityControl treats those few differently: they're red lines, and they always show.
What counts as a red line?
Failures serious enough that the trustees must know today. They include:
- a statutory filing past its deadline
- free reserves below the floor the board set, or negative
- a serious incident that hasn't been reported to the Charity Commission
- no designated safeguarding lead, if you work with children or adults at risk
- the board below its minimum number of trustees
- trustee meetings not happening as often as your governing document requires
- someone acting as a trustee while disqualified
Only the ones relevant to your charity are checked. A charity that doesn't work with people at risk is never flagged for a safeguarding lead.
Where do they show?
In the Immediate attention panel at the very top of the Assurance page, above everything else. Each one says exactly what tripped it, with the dates and figures. When none are live, the panel doesn't appear at all. No panel is the good state, so a healthy charity is never nagged.
Why can't a red line be hidden?
Because that's the point. Red lines are never averaged into your counts, and there's no way to attest one away or accept it as an exception. Forty checks under control cannot soften one missed filing. The only way to clear a red line is to fix what's behind it.
Why does this protect you?
When charities get into serious trouble, the regulator's question is rarely "did something go wrong?". It's "did the trustees know, and what did they do?". A dashboard that let good news bury bad news would leave you answering that question badly.
Red lines make sure the whole board sees the few things that matter most, every time anyone opens the page. If your board is dealing with one, minute it: the problem was seen and acted on. That record is your best protection.
How do I clear one?
Fix the underlying issue, and the red line clears itself. File the overdue return and mark it done on the compliance calendar. Name a safeguarding lead on the safeguarding register. Bring the board back up to strength. If the record is simply out of date, correcting it clears the line too. There's no button to dismiss one, and that's deliberate.
The governance behind this: our free guide on charitycontrol.org explains the why in plain English.