Damian Collins, the Conservative MP for Folkestone and Hythe, was last week elected as the new chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the House of Commons committee which scrutinises charities.
The select committee of MPs took over scrutiny of the work of the Office for Civil Society and the Charity Commission after the OCS was moved to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in July, following Theresa May’s appointment as Prime Minister.
It will take over from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which scrutinised the work of the Cabinet Office.
PACAC has been active in scrutinising the work of charities over several years, conducting reviews of Kids Company and fundraising regulation last year. It also conducted a more wide-ranging review of charity regulation and the Charities Act in 2013.
The culture committee has not yet tabled any evidence sessions with either the OCS or the Commission. Previously it had been customary for PACAC to annually review both organisations, but it had not conducted any such meetings in 2016.
The culture committee is understood to have a backlog of existing inquiries and is unlikely to be able to examine charitable regulation until well into next year, and possibly later.
Collins was elected in 2010, and has mentioned charities eight times in his career in Parliament. He works closely with The Shed, a charity project in Folkestone.
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