Garden Bridge Trust

(asked on 7th March 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether he has (a) had discussions with the Charity Commission and (b) received representations on the appropriateness of the Garden Bridge Trust chair meeting the Charity Commission chair in 2013 to seek his advice on how to register the trust as a charity.


Answered by
Mims Davies Portrait
Mims Davies
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 14th March 2019

We have no record of any discussions between DCMS Ministers and the Charity Commission about the Garden Bridge Trust. We also have no record of any representations about the Garden Bridge Trust meeting with the Charity Commission.

As stated in Helen Stephenson’s (Chief Executive, Charity Commission) letter to you in response to PQ 221693, the Commission’s case files show that, prior to registration, two officials at the Charity Commission held a teleconference with the Garden Bridge trustees and their representatives on 12 December 2013 to provide preregistration advice.

It is not unusual for officials at the Commission to provide pre-registration advice where applications to register are for particular high-profile or complex organisations.

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