Common questions about The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's rating, finances, and Charity Commission status.
Is The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity a good charity? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity scores 83 out of 100 (4 stars — Good) on CharityCompare's Clarity Score, our independent read of its UK regulator filings. Around 87% 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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity a legitimate charity? +
The register data used for this profile lists The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity as a registered charity (charity number 1078685). Verify it on the official register: https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regId=1078685&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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's charity number? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's charity number is 1078685. 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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's charity rating? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity scores 83 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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity have reviews and complaints? +
CharityCompare does not host public user reviews for The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity. Instead you get a filing-based Clarity Score, cause spend, reserves and red flags such as late accounts (one red flag on this profile: very high reserves). For formal complaints about a charity, contact the Charity Commission, OSCR, CCNI or the Fundraising Regulator as appropriate.
How much of my donation reaches The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, 87% of The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity'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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's overheads? +
Across the recent disclosed accounts used for this score, fundraising costs were about 13% of total expenditure and fundraising plus separately reported governance figures amount to about 13% of expenditure (2023–2025, disclosed years); these categories can overlap, so this is not a distinct total of all administration costs at The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity. The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 3 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £100,001–£110,000 (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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity receive? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity reported £11m total income in its 2025 accounts, based on UK regulator filings. Five-year trend: stable.
Are The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's accounts up to date? +
Filing status: up to date (last filing 2025-10-01). CharityCompare flags late or missing accounts separately from the financial score.
Where is The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity based? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's registered contact address is in Taunton (TA21 9JQ). It tells the regulator it operates in Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, Wiltshire, North Somerset, with a focus on health.
How much is The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's chief executive paid? +
The Charity Commission register does not name individual salaries. The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports 3 employees paid more than £60,000, including 1 employee paid more than £100,000. The highest reported pay band is £100,001–£110,000 (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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's money come from? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity reported £11m total income for the year ending 31 March 2025. The largest sources were donations and legacies £5.7m (51%), trading and fundraising events £4.5m (40%), investments £916k (8%). Legacies (gifts in wills) contributed £3.4m.
Can I claim Gift Aid on a donation to The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity? +
The register records The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity 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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's trustees paid? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity's annual return for the year ending 31 March 2025 reports that no trustee received remuneration or other benefits from the charity.
When was The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity registered as a charity? +
The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity was entered on the register on 20 December 1999. It is also a company registered at Companies House (company number 03893356).
How does CharityCompare score The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity? +
We calculate a Clarity Score of 0–100 from four pillars in The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity'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 The Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance Charity'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.