Analysis
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) asked the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Commission) in May 2009 to authorise the payment of the RNIB’s Chair at the rate of £24,000 per annum for two days’ work per week. Authority was sought with effect from the date the chair was due to take office (23 July 2009), for his full three-year term of office. Previous authority had been given by the Commission to the RNIB to pay reasonable remuneration to four trustees in 2006 and to a fifth in 2007.
A week before the chair took office, some of the trustees raised concerns that there had been no reference to the possibility of payment before the chair’s election, which may have had an effect on the field of potential candidates. In August 2009, the Commission’s Executive Director of Charity Services gave authority for the RNIB to pay the chair for only one year as opposed to the three years that had been requested. The decision indicated that further permission would not be given until the chair resigned and was re-elected.
The RNIB requested reconsideration of the decision on the basis that it was in a state of constitutional transition and there was no current operative mechanism for electing a new chair.
Held (authorising payment for the full term of office)
(1) The RNIB had demonstrated against the Commission’s published criteria that is was expedient to pay its chair. This was particularly so because it would benefit the RNIB to have a chair who was blind (para [21]).
(2) The Commission recognised that an election would be difficult to stage before 2012 and recognised the additional cost and staff time associated with conducting any election, given that the vast majority of its electorate consisted of people who were blind or partially sighted (para [23]).
(3) Payment would be authorised until the chair’s term of office ended in 2012 or any earlier date of his term ending (para [25]).
(4) There should have been greater clarity prior to the election that remuneration might be sought (para [22]). Future election materials should address the possibility of payment and the Commission will consider developing its general guidance in this area (para [26]). The Commission was concerned that the constitutional position of the RNIB was not known prior to the oral review of its decision and that the charity had anticipated constitutional changes prior to their submission to and approval by the Privy Council (para [27]).
JUDGMENT Issue before the commission [1] Whether to authorise the payment of the chair of the charity trustees under the terms of the charity’s governing document. Decision [2] The commission is satisfied that the charity has demonstrated that the proposed payment of the chair would be expedient in the interests of the charity. In other …Continue reading "Charity Commission v RNIB 226227"