The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with Institute's Royal Charter, the Charities Act 2011 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019).
Our objectives are centred around four external-facing pillars (Members, Learning, Engagement and Professional Standards) supported by three internal-facing foundations (Operations, Digital and Data & Insights).
The activity outlined for each of the four pillars is linked by four cross-cutting themes;
Chartership - to enhance the institute's value and support our professional network.
Sectors - to expand the human factors profession in key areas
Topics- to boost member impact in relevant discussions
Career pathways - to open access to the human factors profession and aid career progression
Our purpose, ambition and values are built on our charitable purposes as stated in the institute's Royal Charter:
- To promote learning and advance the education and knowledge in the subject of, and with regards to, ergonomics
- To promote human wellbeing by increasing the awareness and use of ergonomics knowledge; in the interests of the general public benefit
The trustees have paid due regard to guidance issued by the Charity Commission in deciding what activities the charity should undertake.
Overall, 2024 has been a positive year. This report sets out how we achieved this.
In April, we launched our new Strategy at the EHF2024 conference held in Kenilworth. The strategy – along with an introductory video – are available at https://ergonomics.org.uk/about-us/strategy.html. This was a significant moment in the year, and we have been working to ensure all our activities align with the strategy. In summary, the CIEHF is committed to driving positive change and our new strategic plan aims to help decision-makers understand the transformative impact of human factors across diverse sectors and disciplines.
We celebrated our 75th anniversary and 10 years of our Royal Charter in 2024, and for the first time in over 5 years, we have seen a significant rise in membership numbers taking us over the 2,000-member mark. Behind the scenes, we have continued our programme of operational improvements including the completion of our first external audit, retaining our ISO9001 certification and a comprehensive review of our Professional Competency Checklist (PCC).
Members
Year-on-year change in recruitment and retention has been encouraging with a 14% uplift in member numbers, from 1,914 at year end of 2023 to 2,175 at the end of 2024, with 573 (26%) Chartered members among them. A significant contributing factor was the purchase of 150 Associate memberships by Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations (MNSI), but we have also been encouraged by members joining from new sectors and organisations including the civil service and emergency services.
We have taken steps to reduce financial risk associated with membership subscriptions – towards the end of the year (where we have the majority of renewals) we updated the messaging on the website to encourage members to move to annual direct debit – we currently have 30% of members using this payment method, and if we can increase this number, it would reduce the administrative burden on the CIEHF team, freeing them up to spend more time on activities that deliver member value.
We have a range of digital resources for members including print and online versions of our quarterly magazine ‘The Ergonomist’; access to journals; the ‘Communities’ discussion forum which is a platform for members to exchange thought leadership, research, insight and best practice; and a weekly email communication to members which consistently achieves open rates of over 50%.
These member products and services are at the heart of the Institute, and we are committed to continuously improving them to serve our members. In November, we presented a new member engagement strategy to our Council of trustees which included proposed enhancements to our member value proposition including an ambassador programme, website improvements and changes to our member networking groups and regular meet-ups. These will be implemented in 2025 along with a new Communities forum to enable member-to-member messaging and the ability for members to create their own discussion groups.
Learning
Our investment in learning has continued in 2024. We have three learning pathway products (rail, construction and cross-sector) on our website alongside the managed pathways for healthcare and energy run respectively by our partners Loughborough University and The Energy Institute. We also continued to develop the Nuclear Learning Pathway with the Office for Nuclear Regulation which we plan to launch in 2025 and the Mining Learning Pathway developed with Anglo American and exploratory conversations regarding a defence learning pathway.
The Learning Pathways are divided into three levels, beginning with foundational concepts to ensure everyone can establish a solid base of understanding. Certificates of completion are issued at each level and on completion, learners receive certification equivalent to an RQF (Regulated Qualifications Framework) Level 5 allowing them to apply for Technical Membership of the CIEHF. The support and guidance offered to learners (through mentorship, workshops or forums) ensures they can continually evolve in their professional journey.
Learner participation across the pathways is growing with 176 learners enrolled and 36 active learners. We awarded certifications to four learners which is an important milestone as we establish these new programmes.
We expanded our suite of professional development online courses in 2024 and now have 19 course available on topics ranging from workload analysis to fatigue in healthcare and an introduction to bowtie analysis. Course development efforts remain aligned with the development of the Professional Competency Checklist (see Professional Standards section below), ensuring support for both existing professionals and those seeking accreditation.
We saw a significant increase in participation across our professional development courses during 2024 with over 700 participants. The free "Discover" micro-learning course remained the most popular, with 95 new learners joining in the last quarter of the year, demonstrating its ongoing appeal as an accessible and engaging entry point for learners.
Our overall course completion rate stands at an impressive 50%, above the industry average (the average eLearning course completion rates is between 12-30% depending on the industry and how it is measured). Throughout 2024, we received a total of 56 survey responses from participants across our range of professional development courses. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with 96% of respondents finding the course materials useful, 94% stating the courses met their needs, and 98% indicating they would recommend the courses to others. Suggestions for improvement included providing more detailed examples and incorporating additional resources to support neurodiverse learners. We will take this feedback on board as we continue to develop our portfolio in 2025.
Engagement
Our goal for engagement is to demonstrate the value of human factors and ergonomics to business leaders, government and other influencers to drive change. To achieve this goal, we need to work with our members and partners to identify the best opportunities to pursue. It is vital that we prioritise as it will be hard to make progress if we spread our resources too thin.
We have committed to developing theory of change plans to help the profession grow in priority sectors. Theory of change plans are commonly used in the international development world and elsewhere to create detailed pathways providing a comprehensive description and illustration of how and why a desired change is expected to happen. To pilot this new approach, we hosted a workshop for members and partners working in healthcare in June. We have come up with a plan with three long-term outcomes to work towards. The overarching ambition for this initiative is to integrate human factors into healthcare, to improve the safety and performance of the health service, whilst improving patient and professional wellbeing/care. We will look to deliver this plan in 2025 and work with members to identify other priority sectors where we can adopt a similar approach.
Social media
Our social media presence is continuing to improve. For LinkedIn, we have been following the new social media strategy that we developed in late 2023 for a full year. Engagement analytics have improved during the year and there has been a 24% increase in followers. At year end, we had over 9700 followers on LinkedIn. A contributing factor to these increases was a focus on sharing more thought-provoking content - one post in November about busting human factors myths had 34,000 impressions against an average of under 3000 of other posts. We opened a Bluesky account in early 2025 mirroring the topics we post about on LinkedIn and have ceased posting on X (formerly Twitter) but maintaining a presence for the time being. Many other professional bodies have taken a similar approach.
Publications and online events
We released two new publications in 2024. A guide on Integrating Human-Centred AI in Clinical Practice was published in December; by year end, the guide had been downloaded just over 500 times. Earlier in the year, a white paper on Fatigue Risk Management for Health and Social Care was published at our annual conference in April. The resource page was visited 530 times in the first week it was launched. On their own initiative, the Brazilian Ergonomics Society (ABERGO) translated our guidance document ‘How human factors can enhance delivery of EDI’ into Portuguese which we then published.
CIEHF hosted seven webinars in 2024, with a total of 1342 registrations, on a range of topics and sectors.
EHF2024
Our flagship event is our annual conference. EHF 2024 took place in April, and we had a record attendance for the second year running. We had 373 attendees (79% members, 21% non-members) with 180 organisations represented from a range of sectors with defence, healthcare and rail the most represented. We were also delighted to have a growing number of attendees and content contributors from the Nuclear sector. Most pleasing was the post-event survey where 94% said they would recommend the conference to friends and colleagues. We also received a record number of submissions for EHF2025 so we are hopeful for another record-breaking event.
IEA2024
At the end of August, we participated in the International Ergonomics Association (IEA) 2024 Conference in Jeju, Korea. The conference is held every three years and brings together HF practitioners, academics and students from across the world. Nearly 1700 delegates attended the event with over 1,000 presentations delivered in 560 sessions covering a wide array of topics, including workplace ergonomics, cognitive ergonomics, human-computer interaction, and occupational health. Several CIEHF members spoke at the event. It was important that we took part as CIEHF will be hosting IEA2027 in London. Becky Charles (RAIB) has been appointed chair of the Programme Committee for IEA2027, and Becky and Ben Peachey (our CEO) will share a role on the IEA Executive Committee in the three years leading up to the event. The Council of Trustees has approved the set-up of a trading company for IEA2027, and this will be set up as a Community Interest Company in 2025.
75th anniversary
We celebrated our 75th anniversary with the Think Human exhibition at the Museum of Making in Derby developed in partnership with Loughborough University and the Museum of Making. The launch event in September welcomed over 160 attendees including members and supporters of the profession. The launch event generated positive social media posts from attendees and there have continued to be social posts from visitors to the exhibition including from many members. The exhibition was originally planned to end in December but was extended to February 2025.
Professional standards
Professional Competency Checklist (PCC) review
This project has been a key priority in 2024. Our Professional Affairs Board has overseen the review of the PCC and the development of a new format that should improve the user experience for chartership and technical member applicants. The new PCC will have five core competencies and comprehensive work has been done to create a list of knowledge requirements for each core competency. We have also developed a rubric to help standardise the assessment of professional membership applications.
We plan to launch the new PCC in 2025 and will offer an improved online application process. Members, assessors, prospective applicants and other stakeholders will need to be able to access guidance and support which is being developed as part of the launch plan.
Registered consultancies and accredited courses
At the end of 2024, we had 50 accredited registered consultancies, 30 accredited courses and accredited postgraduate courses for Loughborough, Nottingham, Derby, Cranfield, Staffordshire and a collaborative of five New Zealand universities.
Our total revenue for 2024 was £825,273 plus £11,134 investment income compared to our 2023 revenue of £1,041,983. Whilst revenue has dropped year-on-year, this is largely due to double-counting of royalty income in 2023. This was a one-off change to income realisation to rectify past practice where we were recognising income in the wrong year.
The 2024 accounts are our second set of accounts to be subject to an external audit. Our first audit gave us reassurance that many of our practices were following good practice and helped us identify a few areas where we could improve. For example, during 2024, we instigated double approval requirements for expenditure in our operational bank account as a control. The Institute has been subject to a HMRC VAT review that has taken several years to resolve. With the help of our auditor, we were able to resolve the matter by year end including the payment of overdue VAT which lead to a small interest payment that was settled in early 2025. Our financial management practices have been amended to ensure we pay the correct VAT moving forward.
Following approval of the strategic plan in March 2024, the trustees agreed that the Institute should invest in staffing and operational improvements. We added two roles to the CIEHF in 2024 - a Governance manager (0.5 FTE) who started in July 2024 to lead our governance improvement programme and manage our ISO 9001 management system; and a Learning Services Manager appointed in December 2024 to help support expansion of our learning programme and administer professional member applications and course accreditation applications.
We retained our ISO 9001 certification in June 2024 and have continued our programme of operational improvements including re-establishing a risk register and process for regular review of risks by the trustees. For 2025, we have identified board performance improvement, a code of conduct review and a review of our delegation of authority matrix as priorities.
The royalty income from our two associated journals, ‘Ergonomics’ and ‘Applied Ergonomics’ remained healthy in 2024 and is expected to continue into 2025. The financial risks identified with the move to open-access publishing have not had a detrimental impact on our income to date, but we will continue to monitor the situation.
The reserves policy ensures that the Institute can continue to deliver on its charitable purpose and strategic plan in the event of significant disruption to its funding sources. The policy is designed to enable the Institute to function for a six month period to enable the trustees to reflect on the future viability of the Institute whilst meeting its short-term commitments.
The Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors was established in 1949. It was incorporated on 18 June 1985 as a company limited by guarantee, not having share capital: the company is registered as a charity, number 1161870. It is governed by its Royal Charter.
Our governance and management structure
The Charity is governed by the Board of Trustees. The trustees delegate the day to day running of the charity to the CEO - Benjamin Peachey.
Further responsibilities are as follows:
- Council is responsible for ensuring CIEHF manages financial resources responsibly and that activities are in line with our charitable purposes and strategic plan.
- The Treasurer is responsible for monitoring the current and future financial position of the Institute and raising any concerns to the Executive Committee.
- The Executive Committee is responsible for assessing the current and future financial position of the Institute's risk register.
The trustees who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:
Trustees are elected by the membership in accordance with the governing documents of the Institute. The election process is managed by CIEHF team members and using an independent third party for voting (Civica Election Services). Eligible members are invited to stand for election, candidate profiles are shared with voting members along with the voting deadline.
Successful candidates for officer, trustee and Professional Affairs Board positions are ratified at the AGM usually held in April each year. All newly appointed trustees receive a structured induction programme designed to support them in their new governance role. This includes:
An induction pack containing the Institute’s governing documents, strategy plan, most recent quarterly report (including financial reports and updates on current projects) and key policy documents.
An online training module that covers trustee roles, responsibilities and legal obligations.
An on-boarding session at their first in-person trustee meeting with the CEO and incumbent trustees.
Continuing development of trustees is supported through access to external governance training (including charity law, finance, and risk management).
Trustee training needs are reviewed annually by the Institute’s Governance Manager. The Board remains committed to ensuring all trustees are equipped to fulfil their responsibilities effectively and contribute to the advancement of the Institute’s objectives.
The trustees are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping sufficient accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
Overall, we have had a very successful year supporting members, organisations and allied professionals. We would like to thank the CIEHF team who work tirelessly to ensure we achieve what we set out to do. We also thank those members who volunteered their time and effort in many roles – we could not fulfil our aims without their dedication and commitment.
The trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
Opinion
We have audited the financial statements of Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 December 2024 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
In our opinion, the financial statements:
Basis for opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.
We have nothing to report in this regard.
We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:
the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the trustees' report; or
sufficient accounting records have not been kept; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.
Based on our understanding of the charitable company, we identified the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations including those that have a direct impact on the preparation of the financial statements and the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. Audit procedures performed included discussions with management, review of board meeting minutes, testing of journals, designing and performing audit procedures and challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in relation to accounting estimates.
There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above. We are less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations that are not closely related to events and transactions reflected in the financial statements. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentations, or through collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Other matters
Your attention is drawn to the fact that the charity has prepared financial statements in accordance with "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (as amended) in preference to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice issued on 1 April 2005 which is referred to in the extant regulations but has now been withdrawn.
This has been done in order for the financial statements to provide a true and fair view in accordance with current Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors is a charity limited by guarantee, incorporated in England and Wales, and consequently does not have share capital. Each of the trustees is liable to contribute an amount not exceeding £1 towards the assets of the charity in the event of liquidation.
The principle place of business is:
7 The Courtyard
Wootton Park
Wootton Wawen
Warwickshire
B95 6HJ.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document, the Charities Act 2011, FRS 102 "The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland" and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The financial statements have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a true and fair view. This departure has involved following the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities applying FRS 102 rather than the version of the Statement of Recommended Practice which is referred to in the Regulations but which has since been withdrawn.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.
Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.
Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.
Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.
Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in the statement of financial activities.
Fixed asset investments are initially measured at transaction price excluding transaction costs, and are subsequently measured at fair value at each reporting date. Changes in fair value are recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year. Transaction costs are expensed as incurred.
At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.
Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the charity is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.
Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.
In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
Direct travel and subsistence
Direct equipment
Direct external services
Other direct costs
None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year.
During the year ended 31 December 2024, a total of £1,563 in expenses was reimbursed to 9 trustees for travel expenses (£6,705 in 2023).
The average monthly number of employees during the year was:
The key management personnel are represented by 2 employees. The total employee benefits of the key management personnel is £179,673 (2023: £171,054).
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
Deferred income is included in the financial statements as follows:
The charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the charity in an independently administered fund.
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
John Wilson Memorial Fund – A donation given to establish a fund in memory of former Institute President, Professor John Wilson, to provide student travel bursaries.
Members Liberty Award – Established to finance an annual award to the author of the best article published in ‘Ergonomics’.
Op Ex IEHF Archive – A fund to support the establishment, preservation and presentation of publications, artefacts and images pertaining to the history of IEHF, its antecedents and of Ergonomics/Human Factors generally.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2023 - none).
The charity had no material debt during the year.