Common questions about Plymouth Marine Laboratory's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is Plymouth Marine Laboratory a good charity? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory scores 81 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 93% of its spending goes to charitable activities (3-yr avg) and its accounts are up to date. That reflects how transparent and financially healthy it looks on paper — it does not measure the real-world impact of its work, so treat it as one factor alongside the cause you care about. CharityCompare never tells you where to donate.
Is Plymouth Marine Laboratory a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists Plymouth Marine Laboratory as a registered charity (charity number 1091222). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1091222&subId=0. Check the current entry and the identity of anyone requesting money. Registration does not verify a particular appeal; Clarity Score summarises filing transparency, not programme impact.
What is Plymouth Marine Laboratory's charity number? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory's charity number is 1091222. Check that number on the official register (Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) or this CharityCompare profile before you donate — scammers sometimes reuse real numbers on fake appeals.
What is Plymouth Marine Laboratory's charity rating? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory scores 81 out of 100 on CharityCompare (4 stars — Good). The Clarity Score (method v1.1) sums four pillars from UK regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 pts), Financial Health (30), Financial Efficiency (20), and Community Support (10). Stars use the same bands as those labels — 90+ is 5★ Exceptional. It is not an impact ranking.
Does Plymouth Marine Laboratory have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (none flagged on this profile). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches Plymouth Marine Laboratory? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 93% of Plymouth Marine Laboratory's total spending went to charitable activities (3-yr avg across disclosed years). That is the closest official figure to "how much of your donation reaches the cause" — it is an average across all spending in the filing, not a pound-by-pound breakdown of an individual gift.
What are Plymouth Marine Laboratory's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 7% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 7% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Plymouth Marine Laboratory's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 40 employees paid more than £60,000, including 3 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £140,001–£150,000 (1 employee). Individual salaries, including the chief executive's, are disclosed in the trustees' annual report rather than on the register.
How much income does Plymouth Marine Laboratory receive? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory reported £16m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are Plymouth Marine Laboratory's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-12-03). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is Plymouth Marine Laboratory based? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory's registered contact address is in Plymouth (PL1 3DH). It tells the regulator it operates in Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, with a focus on environment.
How much is Plymouth Marine Laboratory's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. Plymouth Marine Laboratory's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 40 employees paid more than £60,000, including 3 employees paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £140,001–£150,000 (1 employee). Charities normally disclose the chief executive's pay, or the pay of their highest-paid staff, in the remuneration note of the trustees' annual report and accounts.
Where does Plymouth Marine Laboratory's money come from? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory reported £16m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were charitable activities £15m (90%), trading and fundraising events £1.5m (9%), investments £134k (1%).
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to Plymouth Marine Laboratory? +
The register records Plymouth Marine Laboratory as registered with HMRC for Gift Aid, so a UK taxpayer can usually add 25p to every £1 they give by making a Gift Aid declaration.
Are Plymouth Marine Laboratory's trustees paid? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was Plymouth Marine Laboratory registered as a charity? +
Plymouth Marine Laboratory was entered on the register on 20 March 2002. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 04178503).
How does CharityCompare score Plymouth Marine Laboratory? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in Plymouth Marine Laboratory's regulator filings: Accountability & Transparency (40 points — filing history, trustees, policies), Financial Health (30 — reserves, income trend, debt), Financial Efficiency (20 — cause spend and fundraising cost, on a graduated scale) and Community Support (10 — volunteer-to-staff ratio). An open statutory inquiry scores 0. The score measures reporting on paper, not programme impact. CharityCompare is free for donors, takes no commission on donations, and scores cannot be bought.
How often is this page updated? +
This profile was last updated on 6 September 2026 from the latest UK regulator data available to CharityCompare, and Plymouth Marine Laboratory's most recent accounts cover 2025. Scores and figures refresh whenever we re-ingest the register, so the page reflects our latest data pull rather than a one-off review.