The Charity Commission last week announced its five-year strategy in terms of its priorities. In line with the Charity Commission’s values of being Fair, Balanced, Independent, Supportive, Collaborative, and Innovative, the strategy sets out the following priorities for the Commission between 2024 and 2029:
- To be fair and proportionate in our work and clear about their role;
- To support charities to get it right but take robust action where it sees wrongdoing and harm;
- To speak with authority and credibility, free from the influence of others;
- To embrace technology innovation and strengthen how they use data; and
- To be the expert Commission, where their people are empowered and enabled to deliver excellence in regulation.
From the writer’s perspective, given his area of practice, the interesting parts are paragraphs 1 and 2 above. In respect of paragraphs 1 and 2, the Commission has confirmed that it will:
- Make communications easier to understand and clear;
- Ensure definitions of risks that they consider are clearer;
- Be more specific on standard of evidence and the threshold for regulatory action; and
- Improve dialogue following early identification of potential compliance concerns.
It will however also:
- Strengthen the use of data and intelligence to build capability in charities but also with a view to preventing and penalising wrongdoing;
- Deploy a full range of powers for tackling wrongdoing; and
- Improve and raise awareness of guidance to educate trustees better about their obligations.
The above is definitely a ‘carrot and stick’ approach. The Charity Commission has made it clear that it wants to help trustees to understand their roles effectively and to operate in accordance with the law but is making it abundantly clear that it will not tolerate rogue trustees and will take decisive action where necessary.
Orlando Fraser KC, Chair of the Charity Commission said:
“The Board of the Charity Commission wanted a new strategy that would send a strong signal of our continuing ambition to be an expert regulator that is fair, balanced and independent. Such a regulator is key to the thriving of charities in England and Wales. Charities play a vital role within our society, supporting the most vulnerable, binding communities of place and interest, improving countless lives in myriad ways. Their ability to do this rests on public trust and confidence, which in turn requires expert regulation.
This 2024-29 Corporate Strategy, with its five priorities of fairness, balance, independence, digital and data, and people, set within the context of our statutory remit, functions and powers, maps our course ahead in this respect. We believe that, in working to this strategy over the next five years, the Commission will cement its ambition to be an expert regulator, and so will help ensure that charities’ enduring place within our society is protected, and secured, into the future.”
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Kevin Modiri is a Partner in our expert Dispute Resolution team, specialising in charity law, civil disputes, insolvency, inheritance disputes, data breach claims and defamation claims.
If you have any questions concerning the subjects discussed in this article, please do not hesitate to contact Kevin or another member of the team in Derby, Leicester, or Nottingham on 0800 024 1976 or via our online enquiry form.
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