Another person frustrated by the Charity Commission’s apparent reluctance to take meaningful action against a charity that has been accused of malpractice, has set out his complaint in a submission to the Public Administration Select Committee.

David Jennings’ submission describes the Charity Commission as “an accident waiting to happen” because of its focus on “light-touch or self-regulation” which will have the effect, he says, of allowing rogue charities to act with impunity.

Jennings is still embroiled in a battle with the regulator over a complaint against a charity that he first lodged four years ago.  Jennings, who was a senior manager at the charity at the time, raised concerns about the transfer of its fostering operation to a private limited company owned and controlled by the same people who ran the charity.

The Commission is still looking into the case but Jennings claims its investigation has been slow, incompetent and ineffective.  Since the complaint was lodged the charity has gone into liquidation – a situation that Jennings believes might have been avoided if only the regulator had acted more quickly and efficiently.

In Jennings’ PASC submission he accuses the regulator of having an organisational agenda to avoid at all costs any cases that might be challenged in the Charity Tribunal – hence its recent “significant decline in Section 8 statutory inquiries and reliance on light-touch advice for trustees or treating investigations as compliance cases”.

He said the longer-term implications are extremely serious, “as the ‘light touch’ proposed by the Charity Commission is also providing a blueprint for crime within the sector”.  

“I believe this case and the current direction of travel being taken by the Charity Commission are highly questionable and will at some point cause reputational damage to the public confidence and perception of the charitable sector,” Jennings wrote.  

“I do believe the Charity Commission is an accident waiting to happen.”

Commission responds

The Charity Commission declined to comment on Jennings’ specific case or his comments to the PASC but did say: “We have a clear published risk framework for assessing concerns about charities and what regulatory action is appropriate. We have been clear before that the Tribunal is an important part of the charity law architecture and we are relaxed about cases being heard there."

Rising clamour over complaints

Jennings’ submission adds to the growing list of people who have written to the Select Committee with concerns about the Charity Commission’s regulatory approach and the lack of an effective complaints process in the sector, with an element of independent review.  The others include:

• Former Charity Commission compliance officer and whistleblower David Orbison, who said determined criminals regard the regulator as “nothing but a joke” because of the ease with which they can exploit weaknesses in the regulation of the sector.
• Louisa Hutchinson, a member of the English Speaking Union who is still trying to achieve resolution over a complaint against some of its trustees dating back to 2009. She told the PASC that boards of governors can “act as judge and jury in complaints against themselves or unilaterally declare a complaint closed, secure in the knowledge that the Charity Commission will regard this as entirely a matter for the complainant and the trustees of the charity to resolve”.
• The Association for Charities, the self-appointed watchdog of the Charity Commission, told the Committee that the regulator remains “insufficiently accountable” for the exercise of its extensive regulatory powers in relation to charity beneficiaries, trustees and volunteers. It recommended the government should formally request annual evidence from the Commission about how it has discharged these powers.
• Caroline Aldiss, who served on the panel of Volunteering England’s Volunteer Rights Inquiry and is now a member of its Call to Action Progress Group, told the Committee that a Charity and Volunteering Standards Board was needed to provide an independent assessment of charity complaints.

The Public Administration Select Committee is inquiring into the regulation of the charity sector and the impact that the Charities Act 2006 has had.  It has now stopped accepting evidence and will report its findings and recommendations to the government in due course.