The UKFast Community and Education Trust has been told to improve its safeguarding policies, after the Charity Commission concluded a compliance case into the organisation.
The charity was created by millionaire businessman Lawrence Jones and his wife in 2016, who both sit on its board.
The Commission’s case began last year, after Civil Society News reported that one charity publicly promised £50,000 by Jones still had not received the donation a year later. The board was also required to report a breach of charity rules in 2019 when two of its trustees were indirectly paid from charitable funds, according to financial accounts.
Jones made his fortune after founding the cloud computing firm UKFast, but left in May 2020 after being accused of misconduct by several employees.
He was charged with two counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault earlier this year, and awaits trial. Jones denies all charges.
Charity Commission: Safeguarding needs strengthening and improvement
A Charity Commission spokesperson told Civil Society News: “Safeguarding should be an absolute priority for trustees, and we expect all charities to have clear, robust policies in place to reflect this as well as support them when things go wrong.
“Our regulatory compliance case into concerns at UKFast found that the charity’s safeguarding policy and the trustees’ oversight of safeguarding requires strengthening and improvement.
“We have therefore issued the trustees with advice and guidance to address these concerns, and their governance arrangements more generally.
“Should any further concerns come to light, we would assess these in line with our regulatory and risk framework.”
Name change
Last year UKFast said it hoped the charity would change its name change “in order to accurately reflect the fact there is no relation between the charity and the UKFast Group business”.
Companies House filings show that the UKFast Community and Education Trust changed its name to the Jones Community and Education Trust in August 2020.
It is still listed as the UKFast Community and Education Trust on the Commission's register of charities. It is due to file its next set of accounts with the Charity Commission next month, having been granted a Covid filing extension.
The Jones Community and Education Trust did not respond to a request for comment.
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