Charity Commission

Peter Lamb Excerpts

Wednesday 11th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Vicky Foxcroft]

I will come to the points that my hon. Friend raises later, but I will say that the Under-Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley South (Stephanie Peacock), met the Charity Commission when she was the Minister responsible for civil society to discuss CISWO’s support for coalmining communities. My hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame Morris) cares deeply about supporting coalfield communities, and the Government and I share that sentiment. I would be happy to meet a delegation.

We rightly rely on the Charity Commission not only to promote best practice and deliver knowledge for trustees, but to step in and act when issues arise. As a civil regulator, its core responsibility is to ensure that trustees comply with their duties under charity law, that charities pursue their charitable purposes for the public benefit, and that any misconduct or mismanagement is addressed. The Charity Commission has a range of statutory, investigatory and enforcement powers at its disposal to effectively regulate charities and address wrongdoing. The Government fully support the Charity Commission in taking proportionate action in such cases, but it is important to note that the Charity Commission can only take action where there is misconduct or mismanagement. Where a charity pursues its charitable purposes within the law and the terms of its governing document, the commission cannot intervene.

[Peter Lamb (Crawley) (Lab)]

I am a member of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and we have had the Charity Commission in to review matters, in the wake of its attempt to violate privilege in several cases that had been dealt with badly. Would it surprise the Minister to learn that the Charity Commission has expressed concern about the limits of its powers? One example was an incident in which a member of a charity board dealing with children had been asking for intimate photography of children. They resigned from that role, which meant that they could not be disbarred from holding an office in another charity in future, because the powers of the commission apparently did not extend that far.

[Vicky Foxcroft]

I am interested in having a further discussion with my hon. Friend, because what he has described sounds extremely worrying.

It is undoubtedly important to resolve disputes such as the one raised by my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire, for the benefit of local communities. Indeed, many of the points that she raised seem deeply concerning. However, with more than 170,000 registered charities to regulate, the Charity Commission takes a risk-based approach to regulation to ensure that no issue or complaint is overlooked, while also ensuring that it acts in a proportionate manner and uses its resources to prioritise the highest risks. That means that in some cases the commission cannot take action, or cannot take action as swiftly as those involved would like it to, and final outcomes of casework can depend on the complexity of each individual case. The commission experienced a 50% increase in the number of concerns raised about charities between August 2025 and 2026, which has left its resources severely stretched. It is important that we have a regulator that can act effectively to tackle abuse and mismanagement of charities.