LGBT charity investigates after leading trustee resigns following online speculation
A Scottish LGBT charity has said it will undertake a full investigation after media reports that the convenor of its board had ‘embellished’ his CV.
LGBT Youth Scotland said Timothy Westwood had resigned from his position after “significant online discussion and speculation” relating to his qualifications and seemingly AI-generated images of himself shared on the charity’s website.
The charity announced Westwood’s appointment as convenor of its board in March, describing him as “a highly experienced third sector leader, lawyer and governance specialist”.
It said Westwood’s career included “senior leadership and advisory roles with a number of the UK’s leading charities and youth organisations, including the Red Cross, Pride in London, Amnesty International and Citizens Advice.”
Amnesty International, Citizens Advice and the British Red Cross told Third Sector they had no record of Westwood working in their organisations either as a member of staff or in an advisory capacity.
Mhairi Crawford, chief executive of LGBT Youth Scotland, said the charity was “taking action with the board to undertake a full investigation into the media allegations”.
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New Charity Commission powers ‘could suppress advocacy and campaigning’
Government proposals to widen the Charity Commission’s powers to tackle extremism could suppress advocacy and campaigning, a group of charities and voluntary sector membership bodies have warned.
The government’s Protecting What Matters social cohesion strategy, published last month, says it plans to strengthen the Charity Commission’s powers to tackle extremist abuse by “extending its ability to suspend trustees and shut down charities”.
But a letter from charity leaders to Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, warns of the possible negative consequences of some of the proposals and urges the government to ensure any new measures are accompanied by robust safeguards.
The letter says the group is “particularly concerned about the proposal to introduce broader and more ambiguous grounds on which organisations could be reported for alleged and ill-defined ‘extremism’”.
It says: “In the absence of clear safeguards and well-defined thresholds, the proposed expansion of the Charity Commission’s powers to remove trustees and to close organisations could be applied in ways that mischaracterise legitimate civil society activity.
“This, in turn, may contribute to the suppression of lawful advocacy, campaigning and community engagement, particularly for organisations working on sensitive or contested issues, including those led by or representing diverse communities.”
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Regulator engages with Sentebale as it files defamation case against Prince Harry
The Charity Commission said it is engaging with Sentebale’s trustees to understand how its legal action against Prince Harry would further its charitable purposes.
The regulator’s intervention comes after Sentebale, which was co-founded by the Duke of Sussex to support people in Africa living with HIV and Aids, filed defamation proceedings against the prince and his fellow former trustee Mark Dyer.
In a statement, Sentebale’s trustees and executive director said on Friday that it had commenced legal proceedings in the High Court over an alleged “coordinated adverse media campaign” conducted since 25 March last year.
The charity’s board and director said the alleged media campaign had “caused operational disruption and reputational harm to the charity, its leadership and its strategic partners”.
But a spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex and Dyer denied the allegations, which they said were offensive and damaging.
The court case comes after a high-profile row between Prince Harry and the charity’s chair, Sophie Chandauka, which came under the public spotlight when the Duke of Sussex stepped down as Sentebale’s patron in March last year.
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