MS Society trustees cleared over row with Scottish council

Governance | Gareth Jones | 7 Dec 2010

Trustees of the MS Society have been cleared of wrongdoing in suspending the powers of the organisation’s Scottish Council, with the Charity Commission confirming that they acted on specialist legal advice in good faith at all times.

The Commission opened a regulatory case report last year following a complaint about the trustees’ conduct, a dispute which came to public attention in April 2009 when author and patron JK Rowling resigned in protest at a “long-standing and escalating conflict”.

The report says that the legal status of the Society’s operations in Scotland (MSS Scotland) were unclear, leading to differing views as to whether the regional operation was an independent charity.

The Commission concluded that in practice MSS Scotland was merely a constituent part of the Society and that trustees could withdraw its powers, even though this was not explicitly written into the Scottish or national constitutions.

One area where the national organisation was in the wrong was when it changed the composition of the Scottish Council to include three trustees, a move which followed a mediation process but which should not have overrode the Scottish constitution.

However, the report emphasises that “there are a range of possible interpretations and that the trustees followed legal advice”.

In November 2009, members of the Society in Scotland voted to be united across the UK under a new constitution, with a reconstituted Scottish Council.

A spokeswoman for the MS Society said the organisation was pleased with the outcome.

Directory: MS Society | Charity Commission

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