# UK Charity Commission Statutory Inquiry Watchdog (`hllerdgn80/uk-charity-inquiry-watchdog`) Actor

Monitors GOV.UK's free public Search API for new Charity Commission statutory inquiry announcements - inquiries opened, class inquiries, Interim Manager appointments, and inquiry reports. Official GOV.UK API, no login, no scraping.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hllerdgn80/uk-charity-inquiry-watchdog.md
- **Developed by:** [Halil Erdogan](https://apify.com/hllerdgn80) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.01 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## UK Charity Commission Statutory Inquiry Watchdog

Tracks new Charity Commission statutory inquiry activity as soon as it is published
on GOV.UK: inquiries opened, class inquiries, Interim Manager appointments, and
published inquiry reports. Built for journalists, charity-sector compliance teams,
grant-makers doing due diligence, and researchers who need an early alert when a
UK charity comes under formal regulatory scrutiny.

### Data source

This Actor calls GOV.UK's own public Search API
(`https://www.gov.uk/api/search.json`), the same API that powers the search box
on gov.uk. It is:

- **Free and keyless** - no registration, no API key, no login.
- **Not blocked by robots.txt** - `www.gov.uk/robots.txt` disallows only the
  HTML search-results page (`/search/all*`); the JSON API endpoint used here
  (`/api/search.json`) is unrestricted.
- **The Charity Commission's own announcements** - results are filtered to the
  `charity-commission` organisation, so every row is something the regulator
  itself published, not a third-party summary.

No scraping, no HTML parsing, no terms-of-service workaround.

### What it collects

For each search phrase (default: "statutory inquiry", "opens inquiry", "class
inquiry", "Interim Managers", "investigates charity", "inquiry report"), the
Actor queries GOV.UK, keeps only Charity Commission results inside your date
window, de-duplicates by URL, and pushes one dataset row per announcement or
report with title, description, GOV.UK content format, published date and the
direct URL.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| `keywords` | array of strings | 6 phrases (see above) | Never leave empty - an empty list returns zero rows every run. |
| `fromDate` | string `YYYY-MM-DD` | 90 days ago | |
| `toDate` | string `YYYY-MM-DD` | today | |
| `formats` | array | `press_release`, `decision`, `corporate_report`, `news_story` | Empty list = all formats including generic guidance pages. |
| `watchLabel` | string | - | Free-text tag stamped on every row. |
| `maxItems` | integer | 100 | Cap on rows pushed per run. |

### Output

One dataset item per matching GOV.UK item, e.g.:

```json
{
  "type": "inquiry_item",
  "watch_label": null,
  "title": "Investigation launched into international aid charity over alleged links with Hamas",
  "description": "The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into...",
  "format": "press_release",
  "matched_keyword": "statutory inquiry",
  "published_at": "2026-08-07T10:38:25Z",
  "url": "https://www.gov.uk/government/news/investigation-launched-into-international-aid-charity-over-alleged-links-with-hamas",
  "status": "ok",
  "message": null,
  "scraped_at": "2026-09-29T15:40:00+00:00"
}
```

Rows with `"status": "ok"` are charged under the pay-per-event model (event
`inquiry-item-found`); a failed run pushes a single `"type": "error"` row free
of charge with `status` set to the error kind (`http_error`, `network_error`,
`parse_error`) and `message` describing it. An empty result (no inquiry news in
the window) is normal and is not an error.

### Suggested schedule

Daily. Statutory inquiry announcements are irregular but time-sensitive news -
a daily run with a 24-48h `fromDate`/`toDate` window catches new items quickly
without re-processing the same announcements.

# Actor input Schema

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Phrases run against GOV.UK's public Search API, restricted to the Charity Commission. Defaults cover statutory inquiries opened, class inquiries, Interim Manager appointments and investigation reports. Never left empty - an empty list would return no rows.

## `fromDate` (type: `string`):

Only keep results published on or after this date, YYYY-MM-DD. Leave blank to default to 90 days ago.

## `toDate` (type: `string`):

Only keep results published on or before this date, YYYY-MM-DD. Leave blank to default to today.

## `formats` (type: `array`):

Restrict rows to these GOV.UK content formats. Leave empty for all formats the search returns.

## `watchLabel` (type: `string`):

Optional free-text tag stamped onto every row, useful when you run several saved searches and want to tell them apart downstream.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after pushing this many rows.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "statutory inquiry",
    "opens inquiry",
    "class inquiry",
    "Interim Managers",
    "investigates charity",
    "inquiry report"
  ],
  "formats": [
    "press_release",
    "decision",
    "corporate_report",
    "news_story"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hllerdgn80/uk-charity-inquiry-watchdog").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hllerdgn80/uk-charity-inquiry-watchdog").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call hllerdgn80/uk-charity-inquiry-watchdog --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hllerdgn80/uk-charity-inquiry-watchdog"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/c7nsImLpesajKaMyj/builds/y9nRhNaVpky8cDtBE/openapi.json