MPs have urged the Charity Commission to take a tougher approach to safeguarding issues in the sector, with some accusing the regulator of failing to take sufficient action.
In a debate in the House of Commons this week, MPs discussed safeguarding in small religious organisations and how children there can be protected from abuse.
Labour MP Sam Carling said: “We must have ways to ensure that organisations that promote harm towards vulnerable people, particularly through mandated shunning, cannot gain the tax, reputational and funding benefits of a charity.
“The Charity Commission must also seriously step up its game as a regulator, as there’s a serious pattern of failing to take action despite repeated requests, which the [National Secular Society’s] Mission and Misogyny report lays bare.”
Last year, the commission lodged a judicial review over reports by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman which criticised its failure to implement recommendations in two cases scrutinising its sexual abuse inquiries at separate charities.
Carling criticised the commission’s “legal threats blocking” publication of relevant documents, saying that the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, on which he sits, “had to bring a privilege motion to force the ombudsman to release the files”.
“I understand that the commission has still pursued that legal action. It’s not on,” he said.
Government to launch consultation this month
Carling asked Jess Phillips, parliamentary under-secretary at the Home Office, if she agreed that organisations promoting hate and abusive practices “shouldn’t be eligible for public money, and therefore support my calls for a thorough review of charity status”.
“Will she also agree that either the government or the relevant select committee should consider a thorough deep dive into the Charity Commission’s approach to safeguarding issues?” he asked.
In response, Phillips said: “The Charity Commission has apparently reviewed the National Secular Society report on religious charities promoting misogyny and confirmed that it has already assessed and responded to a number of incidents.
“I’ll follow up on that action, and I will gladly meet him once I have a fully robust answer.”
She agreed that the idea that an organisation “can promote the hatred of women or the supplication of people’s wives and also be considered a charity is an alien one”.
Last month, prime minister Keir Starmer announced “much stronger powers” for the commission to shut down charities that promote extremism.
During this week’s debate, Phillips said that under the plan, anyone convicted of hate crimes will be barred from serving as a trustee, while it will be easier for the commission to act against anyone undertaking that.
“The changes will be made after a public consultation that’s coming this month, which I invite everybody to take part in,” she said.
Regulation in sector must be ‘as robust as it can be’
During the debate, Helen Hayes, chair of the education committee and Labour MP, said one of her constituents had found the commission to be “utterly ineffectual and far too slow in dealing with her complaint”.
Hayes said the individual was a survivor of abuse within a religious organisation and represents a larger group of survivors at the same organisation.
“The religious organisation continues to operate with the suspicion that the practices that led to the abuse claimed by my constituent are continuing,” she said.
“We’re a couple of years down the line in raising these concerns, so will the minister advise me how I can get some traction on behalf of my constituent to ensure that her allegations and those of other survivors of the organisation are properly dealt with, and that the organisation cannot continue to operate with the same practices?”
In response, Phillips said child abuse should be reported to the police in the first instance, adding that “we need clarity about who is responsible in the system”.
“As a constituency MP, I’ve had to raise such issues with the Charity Commission,” she said.
“We need to ensure that the regime of regulation in our charitable sector is as robust as it can be on safeguarding, as well as on financial irregularity and other things.”
Commission’s response
A Charity Commission spokesperson told Civil Society: “We expect charities to do all they can to keep those who come into contact with them safe from harm. People put their trust in charities and when this is broken it can have a devastating impact.
“Our guidance sets out trustees’ legal duties on safeguarding and when safeguarding failures arise we take action using the regulatory powers available to us.
“For example, we disqualified the entire trustee board of the Essex Islamic Academy when children were exposed to radicalisation and recently issued formal regulatory warnings to two Church of England dioceses over safeguarding failures.
“But as we aren’t a prosecuting authority, we cannot investigate crimes so we’ll always assist the police in any criminal investigation, including sharing intelligence.
“We’re committed to ensuring the sector is well regulated and remain in active dialogue with the government to ensure our powers are fit for the present and the future and continue to use the existing powers granted by parliament to assess and investigate concerns about charities.”
