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NCVO sets up terrorism advisory group to protect charity 'brand'

Finance | Gareth Jones | 1 Nov 2006

NCVO sets up an advisory group on terrorism and the voluntary sector in an effort to protect the charity 'brand' from damaging allegations of terror links.

The group will endeavour to ensure that charities in general are not associated with the actions of a handful of organisations, and that all counter-terrorism action taken against charities by the government, is based on solid evidence.

Stuart Etherington, NCVO chief executive, said that while any abuse of charitable status should not be tolerated, legitimate and hard-working organisations should not be singled out unfairly, here or abroad. "So far, much of government's work on the 'terrorist abuse of charities' seems to have been carried out in a vacuum, with little consultation with the voluntary sector," Etherington said. "We want to ensure that charities' voices are heard in these discussions, and that all measures are proportionate and based on evidence of that misuse."

The group will assess what evidence there is of the abuse of charities and provide a recommendation to government on how it can work with the sector to ensure that charities are not exploited for terrorist purposes. It will produce a report which will set out its findings and respond publicly to the Home Office/Treasury terrorism report, expected at the end of 2006.

The group is being set up in the wake of a speech earlier this month by Gordon Brown on meeting the terrorist challenge, in which he stated that the abuse of charities was one of the three most dangerous sources of terrorist finance. "We know that many charities and donors have been and are being exploited by terrorists," Brown claimed. He added that all allegations of possible abuse were being examined and cited the Charity Commission's inquiry into Crescent Relief. "It is important to look at the whole sector so that dubious charities are rooted out and good charities are protected from abuse."

After the speech, it was widely reported that the Chancellor had launched a crackdown on terror fund charities, which caused considerable frustration within the sector. Charity Commission chief executive Andrew Hind said: "Some comments infer that there is a terrorist ring behind every charity which is unhelpful and not true."

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