The government plans to boost the Charity Commission’s powers around banning people from being involved in charities at a senior level as part of measures announced by the Prime Minister yesterday.
Sir Keir Starmer said in a speech about the government’s Pride in Place scheme, which aims to invest £5bn over 10 years in almost 300 deprived communities across the UK, that he wanted to give the regulator “much stronger” powers to close charities that promote extremism.
Starmer did not give any more detail on what the government planned to do but his comments sparked concerns among charity leaders that charities supporting minoritised communities could be adversely affected.
Asked to provide more detail on the plans, a spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “As part of efforts to tackle extremism, we are planning to strengthen the Charity Commission’s powers around the disqualification of individuals from being a trustee or senior manager of a charity.”
The spokesperson said changes would be made after a consultation which would be launched “in the near future”.
They also said: “We will also look more widely at strengthening the Charity Commission’s powers, to ensure it has the powers it needs to tackle abuse of charitable status.”