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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay on 6 September (HL9929), whether (1) DCMS, or (2) the office of the Attorney General, have received any representations or complaints about the the appointment of trustees to the Actors' Benevolent Fund and the application of section 80 of the Charities Act 2011 by the Charity Commission; and if so, what the result of those representations were.

Both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Attorney General’s Office have received correspondence about the Charity Commission’s engagement with the Actors’ Benevolent Fund. Responses to this correspondence confirmed that the Charity Commission is an independent regulator and that it would be inappropriate for HM Government to intervene in the conduct of an independent regulator in the exercise of its functions.