The Charity Commission is planning to take action against one of the Jewish community’s biggest charities, Chabad Lubavitch UK, because of overdue accounts.

Charities are supposed to submit their accounts to the commission within 10 months of the end of their accounting year.

But the accounts for Chabad Lubavitch UK for the year ending December 2014 were not received until December 2016, according to the commission’s website, while its accounts for 2015 were this week listed as 268 days overdue.

The charity watchdog said the organisation’s “annual return filing record is of significant concern to the commission and we will be taking regulatory action. We have now made contact with the trustees on this matter.”

A spokesman for Chabad Lubavitch UK explained: “In the past year we have changed auditors. Chabad Lubavitch UK is a complex organisation and it has taken longer to get up to speed than expected. Lubavitch has submitted its annual accounts since the charity's inception, albeit late, and we are working together with the charity commission to correct this." 

The auditors were now busy with the 2015 audit, he said. “Work on the 2016 accounts are well in hand and simultaneously measures are in place to bring 2017 up to pace.”

In 2014, the charity received nearly £8,750,000 in income, up by around £1 million from the previous year. Its network encompasses  26 affiliated Chabad  Houses in communities and campuses around the country as well as schools and other educational and religious activities.