The Charity Commission is investigating an animal conservation charity that has not filed its accounts in 11 years.
On 4 December 2023, the Commission opened a statutory inquiry into the Cat Survival Trust to look at the charity’s trustees’ compliance with legal duties and fulfilment of its charitable objects.
The regulator said that it has tried to encourage the charity to submit its financial information for years and took steps to determine whether or not the charity was still in operation.
In 2019, after repeatedly sending filing reminders, the Commission opened a regulatory compliance case into the charity and ordered the trustees “to submit all outstanding accounting information”.
“Further failure to file, now totalling 11 consecutive years, has led the regulator to open an inquiry,” it said.
Scope of inquiry
The inquiry will examine the administration, governance and management of the Cat Survival Trust, particularly looking at the extent to which the trustees failed to comply with their statutory reporting duties.
It will also look at the extent to which the trustees acted in accordance with their legal duties and have been responsible for misconduct and/or mismanagement in the administration and management of the charity and whether they furthered its objects for the public benefit.
“The Commission may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional regulatory issues emerge,” the regulator said.
Income nearly halved in five years
The Cat Survival Trust, which conducts research and runs a wild cat sanctuary in Hertfordshire, was created in 1976 “to advance public education and research into wild cats and their conservation”.
According to the Commission’s website, the charity had four trustees and total income of £29,700 against total expenditure of £17,600 for the year ending 31 March 2011.
It also shows that the charity’s income almost halved over the five-year period from £58,700 in 2007 to £29,700 in 2011.
The charity did not respond to Civil Society’s request for comment.
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