The Charity Commission has said it will now give charities 28 days’ notice before publishing official warnings, following pressure from the sector, in updated guidance on how it uses two of its new powers.
This morning the commission published updated guidance about how it intends to use the powers to issue official warnings and to disqualify individuals from trusteeship, following feedback to draft guidance published earlier this year.
NCVO, the Association of Charitable Foundations, the Charity Law Group and others were highly critical of the original guidance for both the new powers and called for clarity around a number of areas. The commission said it had received almost 100 responses to the two consultations.
It held further discussions and workshops with stakeholders to identify the additional information and clarity that the sector had asked for.
Both powers came into force in the autumn.
Warnings
Charities had asked the regulator to be clearer about when it would use the power and urged to lengthen the notice period for publication of the warnings from 14 to 28 days.
The Commission has now published a Q&A document to address practical issues around the use of the powers.
It has also committed to giving 28 days’ notice “unless there are specific reasons” before publishing a warning on its website, and that during that time charities can make representations demonstrating how they have addressed the issue.
At the end of the notice period the commission will either proceed with issuing a warning, issue a modified warning, or not issue a warning.
The commission also confirmed that the decision on publication will be made on a “case-by-case” basis and criteria that staff will take into account before publication have also been published.
The commission said it will not publish a warning if doing so would:
- be detrimental to a particular individual or group of individuals, for example a risk to someone’s personal safety
- contravene or prejudice requirements for confidentiality or commercial sensitivity, or risk national security
- in itself cause disproportionate prejudice to the charity and/or its beneficiaries
- contravene the Commission’s duty to use its resources in the most efficient, effective and economic way
- not be in the public interest for any other reason
Disqualifications
Charities had been concerned that there was insufficient safeguards to the use of the disqualification power and said the regulator’s definition was too vague.
The commission has now published a revised explanatory statement with a Q&A document to accompany it.
In the explanatory statement it outlines a number of safeguards, which include giving people one month’s notice to the individual and any charities they are connected with, and taking into account representations from charities before making a final decision.
‘Valuable input from stakeholders'
Sarah Atkinson, director of policy and communications at the Charity Commission, said: "We received a good deal of valuable input from stakeholders and this in itself shows the benefits of a proper consultation process. We are grateful to those who have contributed.
"The commission’s approach to using these powers has to be guided by the legislation and by parliament. These will be useful tools in our armoury to tackle abuse.
"We are pleased to be able to provide further clarity on our approach and further detail for charities and trustees who are interested in how we will use these powers."
The new documents can be found here.
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