Aug292017

Swinney must explain why his officials meddled in Audit Scotland report

Scottish Conservatives
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29 Aug 2017

Liz Smith

Shadow education secretary Liz Smith has demanded answers from her SNP counterpart after a report by public spending watchdogs was watered down by the Scottish Government.

It was reported today that civil servants demanded changes were made to an Audit Scotland paper on colleges.

As a result, reference to a 41 per cent drop in students was removed and replaced with more favourable narrative.

Now the Mid Scotland and Fife MSP has written to education secretary John Swinney to ask why the interference took place.

She said ministers were only allowed to make corrections when factual inaccuracies appeared in draft Audit Scotland documents.

But in this case, the “undue pressure” from the SNP government was clearly intended to “tone down” language which would have appeared critical of ministers’ performance.

Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liz Smith said:

“Civil servants and ministers are in a position to ask Audit Scotland to make corrections to a report if it is clear there are factual inaccuracies or errors.

“However, in the recent case of Audit Scotland’s review of colleges, documents reveal that undue pressure was brought to bear by a civil servant to alter the wording and the tone of the report.

“This is quite a separate matter.

“In the last session of the Scottish Parliament there was a great deal of debate about probity in government and the transparency of information which is provided in the public interest.

“In this instance, the pressure that was applied by a civil servant to tone down the scale of concern about the college sector was unacceptable and harmful to the image of government in Scotland.”

Aug292017

Press release: Charity Commission review finds sufficient evidence of public benefit in Plymouth Brethren Gospel Hall Trusts

HM Government

The Charity Commission has today published the findings from its programme of post-registration monitoring of Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC) Gospel Hall Trusts.

The Commission has not identified any significant regulatory issues relating to the charities’ compliance with their governing documents, and has seen sufficient evidence of each charity’s engagement with the wider community to demonstrate public benefit.

However, the report sets out a number of areas in which the Commission provided regulatory advice to trustees of the Gospel Hall Trusts, including on the charities’ control of charitable collections made at meetings of Gospel Hall congregations.

The regulator committed to monitoring a sample of recently registered PBCC charities to ensure they were complying with their governing documents, including a Deed of Variation (DoV) adopted during the charities’ registration with the Commission. Over 100 Gospel Hall Trusts have been registered since 2013; of that number 24 were selected for monitoring, including those about which the regulator was contacted with individual concerns.

As part of its work, the Commission spoke to a number of individuals who were concerned about the treatment of former members at Gospel Hall Trusts. The Commission accepts that trustees of Gospel Hall Trusts are not responsible for the behaviour of individual members, who have personal choice in their dealings with their own family members and others. However, the Commission’s report makes clear that it expects the trustees to ensure the DoV is readily available to members and to have regular discussions with them about its provisions. It concludes that the trustees of these particular charities on the evidence it has seen have acted in accordance with the requirement for compassion set out in the DoV.

Michelle Russell, Director of Investigations, Monitoring and Enforcement at the Charity Commission, says:

This is an important example of our proactive case work focused on recently registered charities. Our aim in monitoring new charities is to ensure they are operating in line with their governing document, and are following any regulatory advice and guidance, to help ensure that the public can support charities with confidence.

In this case, our review is able to provide public reassurance that the trustees of Gospel Hall Trusts are taking steps to embed the principles of the Deed of Variation in the running of their charities; we have provided regulatory guidance to some individual trusts and expect them to follow that advice consistently.

This review follows a report into the first PBCC charity to register, the Preston Down Trust, and concludes the Commission’s programme of post registration monitoring of PBCC charities. The regulator says that, as with any charity, it will carefully assess any concerns that may be raised in future.

The full report is available.

Ends

Notes to editors

  1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.

  2. Search for charities on our online register.