A group of MPs will investigate the powers of the RSPCA, in particular its prosecution powers, the chair of the environment select committee told the BBC this morning.
Neil Parish, chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee (EFRA), told the Victoria Derbyshire programme that his committee would examine whether the charity to be allowed to both investigate and prosecute cases of animal cruelty.
However, a spokesperson from the EFRA told Civil Society News that it could not confirm that the select committee will examine the RSPCA, and said no inquiry has yet been announced.
Parish said the committee would look to assess the purpose of the RSPCA and the structure of the organisation.
He said: "They need to balance what they do as an animal welfare organisation with campaigning activities."
Simon Hart, Conservative MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire and a member of the EFRA select committee, also told the programme that an inquiry was needed as it is “difficult to justify” the RSPCA being the second biggest prosecutor in the UK. He said that as a fundraising body it has “a huge commercial interest”, and that it is also a political campaigner.
He said if other charities and organisations rely on the Crime Prosecution Service to undertake prosecutions, then so should the RSPCA.
He said: “The RSPCA seems to be unique in that it tries to fulfil all of these functions and I think it is very difficult for people to be completely content that it is wholly independent when it does political campaigning, a massive amount of fundraising and it does prosecutions as well.
“The CPS was originally formed to prevent any possible accusation that the police may be subject to some kind of undue pressure. If it is good enough for the police it should be good enough for the RSPCA.”
Hart also denied accusations from those watching the programme that the inquiry was politically motivated.
David Bowles, head of public affairs at the charity, told the programme that the RSPCA does not have too many powers, as it doesn’t actually have any powers of its own. He added that the RSPCA’s prosecutions save the government £50m a year.
The programme also showed cases of people who believed they had been unfairly treated by the RSPCA. Once case involved a man who claimed he was forced to agree to have his elderly cat put down by the charity, and then spent the following two years battling a private prosecution from the RSPCA, before the CPS intervened.
The RSPCA went on to issue a full apology in this example. On such allegations, Bowles accepted that prosecutions were a difficult job and said: “Sometimes we don't get it right but we learn our lessons and are going forward and protecting animals.”
An RSPCA spokeswoman told Civil Society News that the RSPCA would “welcome a Parliamentary inquiry into the way in which prosecutions are carried out by the charity”.
She continued: “An inquiry would provide Parliamentarians with an opportunity to consider the implications of the independent review of the RSPCA’s prosecutions activity carried out last year by Stephen Wooler, the former chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate, in which he concluded that the Society should continue its role as a prosecuting body and praised the charity for its 'huge contribution to animal welfare'."
The RSPCA said it is currently working its way through these recommendations.
