The Charity Commission is to contact Acevo regarding comments on chief executive Stephen Bubb’s blog about it acting as a trade union.

Last year the Royal College of Nursing decided to relinquish its charitable status as its trade union function could not be classed as a charitable objective.  This week, a spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: “We are aware of the comment made by the chief executive of Acevo on his blog and will be seeking clarification.”

She added: “Charities have to be established for purposes that fall within the descriptions in the Charities Act (s.2(2)) and be for public benefit.

“This relates to the principles of public benefit, whether benefit to members is incidental and whether a charity’s membership structure exists primarily for the advantage of its members or whether people are able to generally benefit from the charity.”

In the blog post last week entitled ‘The CEO’s Trade Union’, Bubb (pictured) wrote: “One of the core functions of Acevo is to provide a trade union for chief executives.

“We have a range of support and advice services; importantly for the times of crisis and potential loss of job.

“We have an incredibly good one-to-one CEO in Crisis Service and then legal cover for the discussions that go on if resolutions to difficulties cannot be found.”

Asked to clarify Acevo’s trade union activities, deputy CEO Peter Kyle said: “We are a membership body that represents CEOs. Therefore we will always seek to promote the role of great leadership in sustaining a fully functioning and well governed third sector organisation.”