The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Fashion for Relief, over concerns about potential misconduct and/or mismanagement
The charity, which has purposes to relieve poverty and advance health and education, has previously been the subject of a compliance case. During that case, which opened in September 2020, the Commission identified a range of regulatory concerns relating to the governance and finances of the charity. This included the charity’s consistent late filing of accounts and lack of evidence to show that conflicts of interest were being managed.
In March this year, the Commission issued the trustees with an action plan, aimed at improving the charity’s financial management.
Following a review of the charity’s response to the action plan, the regulator identified further concerns in the charity’s financial management and governance to explore. As a result, the Commission escalated its engagement with the charity to an inquiry, which will examine:
The inquiry opened on 8 November. In order to protect the charity’s property, the Commission has used its power to restrict the trustees from certain financial transactions.
The regulator may extend the scope of the inquiry if additional regulatory issues emerge.
It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were.
Reports of previous inquiries are available on GOV.UK.