The Charity Commission is increasing its focus on terrorist abuses within charities, said its chair William Shawcross yesterday.
Speaking at the Rathbones Charity Symposium, he said: “We are stepping up our work to tackle terrorist abuse of charities. The misuse of charities for terrorist purposes represents a despicable inversion of everything charity stands for.”
He gave the example of student groups at London universities inviting the extremist Anwar Al-Awlaki to speak. He added that the Commission is also working more closely with other parts of government to “contribute to the UK’s counter-terrorism infrastructure".
Tackling terrorism was one of three things that he said the Commission was doing to “fulfil its primary role as policeman of the charity sector”.
It is tightening up its approach to serious case work and investigations. "The new board and I are determined that we will be getting tough with charities that do not comply with the law and are under investigation," he said.
The Commission is also pushing for new powers to enable it to disqualify people from becoming trustees and considering tougher rules for charities that fail to file their accounts online.
New guidance
He added that providing advice to the “well-intentioned majority” of trustees at smaller, volunteer-led organisations was still a key part of the Commission’s work.
The Commission will soon provide its first-ever detailed guidance on managing conflicts of interest.
It is also set to publish its revised guidance on public benefit in the next few days.
Trustees should publicly defend executive pay
Shawcross told delegates that when it came to accountability it was up to charities to answer “the questions the public is asking” and go beyond just the reporting requirements set out by the Commission.
He said: “If trustees feel it is in their charity’s interest to pay high salaries to attract talented people , then they should have the courage of their conviction and explain their decisions publicly.
“There is no point moaning how difficult and vital the job is in the 21st century. They must step up and take responsibility for keeping the public informed and for maintaining public support. No-one else is going to do this on charities’ behalf.”
