Proposed new powers for the Charity Commission must not lead it to lose empathy with the charities it regulates and must be accompanied by more funding to be effective, charity leaders have warned in their responses to yesterday's Queen's Speech.
A draft Protection of Charities Bill, announced in the speech, will enforce some or all of the changes to law proposed in a recent consultation by Nick Hurd, minister for civil society.
These include:
- A wide-ranging group of powers for the Commission to disqualify trustees
- A right for the Commission to shut down a charity and transfer its assets to another charity
- A right for the Commission to act in more situations, and use its power outside a statutory inquiry
Charity leaders said the new powers were broadly welcome, but could go too far.
Joe Irvin, chief executive of Navca (pictured), said: “We recognise that the Charity Commission increasingly finds itself under pressure to act whilst having reduced resources. So we are generally supportive of measures that help the Commission do its job.
“However, we have in the past warned against the Charity Commission turning into some kind of Rambo, acting tough but showing little understanding. This means we will study this bill with interest.”
Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, raised similar concerns.
“We support the Charity Commission having the powers it needs to crack down on cases of abuse and malpractice,” he said. “However, any extension of its powers must be proportionate, and must not threaten the independence of the voluntary sector.”
He added that new powers for the Commission needed to be accompanied by new funding “otherwise its already scarce resources will be stretched even further”.
Bubb said he was disappointed with the speech overall.
“The Coalition Government’s legislative programme for its final year has slim pickings for charities and their beneficiaries," he said. "The disappointing lack of any focus on public service reform is a sad reminder that this agenda has been unceremoniously dropped.
“Inevitably, service users will pay the price for the government’s failure to fulfil its early promises to transform public service delivery. Further efforts to cut welfare spending will also hit the most vulnerable in society the hardest.”
Irvin also called for reform to the public service agenda.
“A lot of political commentators are pointing out that it is quite a light legislative programme," he said. "If there is parliamentary time, why not use it to amend the Social Value Act to include all contracts, whatever their size?”
