Charity watchdog launched legal action to stop MPs seeing sexual abuse report

A watchdog took legal action to block MPs from seeing the findings of a report investigating sexual abuse complaints against two charities, MPs have been told.

The Charity Commission has blocked a parliamentary body, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), for five months from publishing conclusions of a report looking at how the watchdog investigated and responded to two separate sexual abuse complaints at charities.

The commission is believed to have disagreed with the findings by the PHSO, which has been attempting to give the report to MPs for scrutiny since March this year.

The Charity Commission went to court to block the release but MPs unanimously passed a motion on Thursday to compel the PHSO to provide the report, ending the delay caused by legal action.

The PHSO said it will lay the report before Parliament next week.

A spokesperson for the commission said it welcomes “proper Parliamentary scrutiny” and denied it had sought to legally block MPs from seeing the reports.

“We sought to resolve these matters without the need for legal proceedings but have been forced to put these matters beyond doubt,” the spokesperson added.

Conservative MP Simon Hoare, who chairs the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, said the Charity Commission had been putting pressure on him to withdraw a motion as recently as Wednesday. He said the watchdog had acted “perversely” in taking legal action.

Mr Hoare said Parliament needed to formally assert itself to stop it being strong-armed by arm’s-length government bodies.

He said: “I think it’s important for all arms-length bodies, in particular the Charity Commission, to understand that this House will not be bullied by arms-length bodies seeking recourse to the courts to stop us doing our job, properly, efficiently and professionally on behalf of all of our constituents.”

The PHSO found the commission had not complied with the PHSO’s recommendations after it was found to have mishandled serious safeguarding concerns regarding sexual exploitation at two charities. It attempted to lay the reports before Parliament in March and the Charity Commission launched legal action.

Two cases were referenced in the House of Commons on Thursday. One regarded Lara Hall, 35, who waived her right to anonymity last year.

She said a UK charity had not responded properly to her concerns about sexual exploitation by a trustee.

Ms Hall then said the Charity Commission had failed to communicate sensitively with her, as she was a survivor of sexual abuse and a whistleblower.

In a statement published by the PHSO last year, she said she felt “institutionally betrayed” by the commission, and that it had broken commitments it had made to her.

Mr Hoare said: “The Charity Commission itself has clearly taken umbrage or offence at what the PHSO has been seeking to do, and that the Charity Commission is bringing legal proceedings deliberately to prevent the laying of those two reports before this House.

“Now that is a complete undermining of the linkage between the Ombudsman and this place, and as I said at the start, our opportunity and decisions to look at any information that we deem of importance or that matters to us to advance policy.”

He added: “I remain to be convinced that the Charity Commission have acted well advisedly in bringing the action.”

MPs passed a motion, brought by Mr Hoare, to end the delay caused by the legal complaint by the Charity Commission, and compel the PHSO to give Parliament the reports.

A spokesperson for the PHSO said: “We are aware of the motion approved in Parliament today.

“We will comply with the motion and aim to do so next week. When we do so we will, in accordance with our usual process, give more detail about the context.”

A Charity Commission spokesperson said: “The Commission is challenging a PHSO decision that we have failed to implement some of its recommendations in two specific cases.

“We are concerned that PHSO’s approach expects us to act beyond our legal remit, at odds with Parliament’s intentions, and undermines our ability to regulate independently and effectively.

“We sought to resolve these matters without the need for legal proceedings but have been forced to put these matters beyond doubt, for the benefit of both organisations in fulfilling our respective public duties. We are therefore seeking the guidance of the High Court via a public law challenge.

“We welcome proper parliamentary scrutiny of our role and have not asked the courts to prevent PHSO from laying any report before it. We had previously invited PACAC to delay its consideration of any report from the PHSO related to this case, pending the outcome of these legal proceedings.”