The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into the Birmingham Education Trust over concerns about the management of the charity by its trustees
The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into the Birmingham Education Trust (1064365), over concerns about the management of the charity by its trustees.
The charity funds and operates a school in Birmingham, which includes the promotion of the teaching of Islam to Muslim girls.
The Commission opened a compliance case into the charity in March 2019, to examine its repeated failure to comply with its statutory duty to file its accounts and annual returns. The case then identified wider concerns, including that the charity was operating in breach of its governing document in having only two trustees who were husband and wife. This also raised concerns about potential unmanaged conflicts of interest.
The Commission issued the trustees with an action plan to address and rectify the concerns, but the trustees have failed to demonstrate progress. The case has therefore been escalated to a statutory inquiry, which opened on 21 July 2020. The new inquiry will further examine the concerns identified at the charity, including whether:
The Commission 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.
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Notes to Editors: