Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge has asked to see full correspondence between the Charity Commission and Bates Wells & Braithwaite for when the law firm acted on behalf of the corporate trustees of the Cup Trust.

The relationship was revealed at yesterday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing on the Cup Trust which saw Charity Commission chair William Shawcross and Charity Commission chief executive Sam Younger give evidence.

PAC chair Margaret Hodge asked them which lawyers had represented the Cup Trust, in response Younger said it had been Bates Wells and Braithwaite (BWB).

BWB released a statement yesterday advising that it had not represented the Cup Trust in the relation to the creation of the charity or its tax affairs.

But, in 2011, BWB had advised Mountstar PTC, the corporate trustee of the Cup Trust, on its response to a Charity Commission investigation, after the regulator had ordered the trustee to cease operating a tax scheme in relation to the Cup Trust.

BWB responded, on Mountstar PTC’s instructions, to the Charity Commission on a small number of technical charity law questions.

A spokesman for BWB said: “We regret acting in this matter and would not act in any similar case. We oppose aggressive tax planning and so acting at all for anyone who might use charities for this purpose is contrary to our stated ethos.”

He added: “Every person facing investigation by a public authority has a right to be advised by lawyers specialising in the relevant field. From time to time the Charity Commission investigates the activities of charities and it is important that those charities are properly represented. BWB regularly advises, of course, in relation to regulatory investigations and inquiries.

“Throughout we acted properly and in accordance with our professional duties. Furthermore, we gave no advice in relation to tax planning.”

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