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The UK government has published its response to the Joint Committee on the Draft Protection of Charities Bill, following pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft bill. The measures in the draft bill include:

• banning people with convictions for certain criminal offences – such as terrorism or money laundering – from being a charity trustee
• a new power to disqualify a person from being a charity trustee in limited circumstances and where the Charity Commission considers them unfit
• a new power for the Commission to require a charity to shut down in an inquiry where there has been misconduct or mismanagement and allowing the charity to continue would risk undermining public trust and confidence in charities
• a new power for the Commission to issue an official warning which it could use in less serious cases; the Commission can put this on the charity’s official record and if evidence is found that they have not dealt with the problem then the Commission will take further action
• closing loopholes that have prevented the Charity Commission from taking enforcement action in the past, such as where trustees have in the past resigned in order to avoid removal and consequent disqualification

In addition to the proposed new powers, the Charity Commission is also receiving an £8 million funding injection, announced last October by the Prime Minister, to help re-focus its regulatory activity on proactive monitoring and enforcement in the highest risk areas like abuse of charities for terrorist and other criminal purposes, such as tax avoidance and fraud.

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Published on our website on Apr.7, 2015