The Charity Commission has been asked to undertake additional due diligence relating to charities connected to its proposed new chair, Third Sector understands.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport this week announced the commercial barrister Orlando Fraser as its preferred candidate to be the next chair of the regulator.
It came after the previous candidate, Martin Thomas, withdrew from the role before taking it up last year.
Third Sector understands that as part of the recruitment process to select Fraser as the preferred option, the DCMS decided to go back to the original shortlist of candidates that were deemed appointable by the advisory committee that scrutinised them, rather than rerunning the entire process.
That decision was in line with rules laid down in the Governance Code on Public Appointments, but major charity membership bodies, including the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the charity leaders body Acevo, had called for the process to be restarted after concerns were raised about the lack of diversity among the shortlisted candidates.
It is understood that “enhanced due diligence” has been carried out on Fraser before he appears before MPs on the DCMS Select Committee at a date yet to be announced.
This includes asking the Charity Commission to conduct additional checks on charities connected with Fraser.
Select committee MPs were dismayed that a charity previously chaired by Thomas had made a serious incident report relating to him, but this had not emerged during the earlier selection process.
Thomas, who had been asked to declare anything that might affect his suitability for the position, subsequently apologised to the committee, saying he thought he had been cleared of allegations relating to him.
The DCMS said earlier this week that Fraser, who stood as a Conservative Party candidate at the 2005 general election, served on the management committee of an unnamed west London domestic violence refuge and supported the Rugby Portobello Trust charity through the 2017 Grenfell tragedy.
He also previously served on the advisory committee of the NCVO and was a founding fellow of former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith’s charitable think tank the Centre for Social Justice.
“Apart from the Rugby Portobello Trust, Orlando supports a number of other charities,” the DCMS said earlier this week, but did not name them.
Fraser’s appointment as Charity Commission chair is subject to pre-appointment scrutiny by the DCMS Select Committee before the government makes a final decision on whether or not to proceed.