Sir Stephen Bubb and Martyn Lewis fielded questions from the Public Administration Select Committee yesterday about the salaries that each organisation pays its CEO, and why Acevo is not just a committee of NCVO.

Robert Halfon MP asked Lewis: “Is it necessary to have NCVO as well as Acevo?”

Lewis, chair of NCVO, responded: “They are very different.  We represent different parts of the sector.  Acevo is, if you like, a trade union for CEOs, whereas we represent charities and trustees.”

But Halfon wasn’t satisfied and asked why Acevo couldn’t just be a “committee within NCVO”, given that charities have to use their charitable funds, some of which inevitably come from the public and the Exchequer, to buy their subscriptions to the two umbrella bodies. “There is an argument for rationalisation,” he said.

Lewis said that some charities belong to both but others choose between them. “There’s always been ebb and flow between our two organisations.”

He also said that on occasion, the interests of CEOs might clash with the interests of their trustees or organisations and so both groups needed a representative body.

Halfon then queried: “Could not the Charity Commission do the things you do?” to which Lewis replied: “The Charity Commission is a regulator.”

Bubb: Acevo is not a trade union

Later, Halfon fired the same line of questioning at Acevo’s CEO Sir Stephen Bubb.  Bubb denied that Acevo was a trade union, but admitted that he could see why it is sometimes described as such.

“We are a professional association,” Bubb said, “a lot of the work we do is around developing and supporting CEOs.”

 Halfon then asked him why it couldn’t be just a committee within NCVO. Bubb replied: “I think there is a rationale for a separate network of charity leaders, like there is for the CBI and the IoD.

“What’s important is that we work together on key issues, and we do that well.”

CEO pay

Halfon also pressed each of them on how their organisations arrived at their CEO’s salaries - £128,000 for NCVO’s Sir Stuart Etherington and £104,000 for Sir Stephen.

Both said they were advised by external HR experts as to the rates to pay. Sir Stephen pointed out that he had a 1 per cent pay rise this year but a pay freeze for three years’ previous, and that he was the only employee at Acevo that earns over £60,000.

Martyn Lewis said that Sir Stuart was a “very powerful character as CEO” and that if he were to leave, NCVO would look to CEOs of major charities for the pool of potential successors.  Therefore Sir Stuart’s pay needed to be on a par with that group, he contended.

He also reminded the MPs that NCVO was heavily instrumental in leading the successful ‘Give it Back George’ campaign which persuaded the government to drop the tax relief cap last year, and that not just anyone could win a battle of that magnitude.