The government has confirmed the appointment of Dame Julia Unwin as Charity Commission chair.

She takes up her three-year term in January until December 2028.

The former Joseph Rowntree Foundation chief executive was revealed as the government’s preferred candidate and then backed by MPs at a pre-appointment hearing last month.

Unwin, who chaired the Civil Society Futures Inquiry seven years ago, is also a former Charity Commissioner, serving for five years in the late 1990s.

Her decade long stint as CEO of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ended in 2016 and her other roles include being a board member of the Financial Reporting Council and chair of the Codes and Standards Committee.

She was named a Dame for services to civil society in 2019.

In endorsing her candidature committee chair Dame Caroline Dineage said “she as the skills and experience to take on the challenge of chairing an organisation that plays a vital role ensuring that the public can support charities with confidence”.

Unwin was only the second preferred candidate to be endorsed by the committee in recent years.

They had previously failed to back the former Conservative government’s candidates, who took up the role regardless. This includes former Conservative Party general election candidate Orlando Fraser, who Unwin is set to replace, and former Conservative minister Baroness Stowell.

The only candidate they backed was Martin Thomas, who was forced to resign in 2021 before taking up the post after being investigated for inappropriate behaviour by a charity he had chaired.

During her pre appointment meeting Unwin acknowledged the role has had a “chequered” recent history.

Also during the session she said that charities have “never been more needed” to tackle division in society, and raised concerns about “a crisis in trusteeship" due to recruitment problems facing some charities.

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