Two whistleblowers have called on Baroness Twycross to retract her recent statement of “full confidence” in the Charity Commission’s leadership, which followed a critical report.
Last month, the Committee of Privileges concluded that the regulator was in contempt of parliament when it sought to prevent two special reports from being laid before the House of Commons, which it had previously denied doing.
The commission’s chair Julia Unwin apologised “unreservedly” for blocking the Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman reports, which had criticised the commission’s implementation of its previous recommendations regarding sexual abuse inquiries at two charities.
The committee had called on the commission’s board and chief executive David Holdsworth to apologise to the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, the regulator commissioned a review by senior judge Gary Hickinbottom into its handling of the cases of whistleblowers Lara Hall and Damian Murray, which is expected to conclude in the autumn.
In a parliamentary statement following the committee’s report, culture minister Twycross voiced “full confidence” in the commission’s leadership and said she was assured that its board was taking action to address concerns.
Now, Hall and Murray have both called for Twycross to retract her statement and apologise.
‘Profoundly disappointed’
In a letter sent to Twycross last week, Murray criticised Twycross’s “premature intervention”, which he said should have waited until the Hickinbottom review had concluded.
“If you are merely taking the word of Dame Julia, her board and executives that everything is now resolved and back on track, then I fear you are being startlingly naïve at very best and can certainly not have looked into the matter in any depth or with a properly critical intelligence,” the letter reads.
“I am, to say the least, profoundly disappointed and infuriated by this government response.”
Hall, who previously urged Holdsworth to resign and the commission’s board to consider their positions, endorsed Murray’s letter.
“Baroness Twycross has made no attempt to speak with me or Damian – the people most affected by the commission’s failings – before rubber-stamping this endorsement,” she said.
“Like Damian, I am a complainant whose case was the subject of a damning ombudsman’s report, and I do not accept that Dame Julia Unwin’s apology is genuinely ‘unreserved’.
“It is not acceptable for the minister to declare full confidence in this leadership before Sir Gary Hickinbottom’s review has concluded.
“I join Damian in calling on her to retract her statement and issue a proper, credible apology to us both.”
DCMS and the commission declined to comment further.
Following the committee’s report last month, Unwin said: “We should not, in hindsight, have persisted in challenging through the courts the laying of the two reports before parliament.
“We regret those decisions and are taking time to carefully review the committee’s report and consider the lessons we need to learn.
“We anticipate that parliament will formally debate the committee’s report in due course, but in the meantime we – the board and chief executive – will be making immediate apologies to the house.”
