Charities should require trustees and senior staff to declare any party political activity undertaken in a personal capacity, draft guidance from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations has said.
The NCVO yesterday released its draft recommendations to help charities uphold their reputation and independence, in particular when campaigning. The recommendations, which have been released for consultation, come after NCVO set up a group last year in response to Part 1 of the Lobbying Act that introduced a statutory register of lobbyists. This register was deemed “wholly inadequate” by NCVO.
One of the recommendations, which refers to charities’ political neutrality, concerns “individuals’ personal involvement in politics” and says that “charities must ensure that the active political involvement of any individual does not raise questions about his or her perceived political bias, or affect the impartiality of their policy and campaigning messages”.
To do so, the NCVO recommends that charities should require their trustees and senior staff to “declare any party political activity undertaken in their personal capacity, such as membership of a political party, or seeking nomination as a candidate for election”.
It adds that this should be declared to the board of trustees and, if applicable, appropriately recorded in the register of interests. The board should then discuss any implications and consider making the register publicly accessible.
Karl Wilding, director of public policy at NCVO, said: “This draft is intended as a starting point for discussion and to encourage charities to ask themselves what they can do on these issues. We think many charities will be doing much of this in some form already.
“There are also proposals for some slightly more stretching recommendations which we think have the potential to further enhance charities’ reputation for acting with integrity.”
The other areas that the recommendations cover are accountability, impartiality, objectivity, transparency and integrity.
One recommendation is that charity staff with personal Twitter accounts that are associated with their work should avoid tweeting anything that could be interpreted as supporting or criticising a particular party or candidate.
The NCVO also recommends that charities publish clear information about what campaigns they undertake, why, and what their impact is. It adds that charities may want to consider publishing meetings held with minsters and parliamentarians’ special advisers to increase transparency, including details of the subject matter.
The recommendations also refers to the reporting of research as part of campaigns, referencing the BBC’s standards for integrity in the reporting of research.
In a blog Elizabeth Chamberlain, NCVO’s policy manager, said: “People have a right to know who is trying to influence policy and why. So even though charities aren’t generally thought to be part of the problem, we believe they should have the highest standards of accountability and transparency.”
The NCVO is inviting comments and suggestions from the sector.
