Opened the debate
The government intends to enhance the powers available to the Charity Commission to disqualify individuals from acting as a trustee and senior manager of a charity and extend the situations in which an individual is automatically disqualified from acting in those roles. The Charity Commission already has a range of powers and takes robust action in cases of extremist abuse, but it is vital that the Charity Commission has all the tools it needs to tackle the abuse of charities. The draft regulations will automatically disqualify individuals with unspent hate crime convictions, unspent convictions for national security offences, and unspent convictions for providing false information to the Charity Commission. Additionally, the regulations will strengthen the Charity Commission’s ability to disqualify individuals who promote or encourage violence or racial and religious hatred and those who have been deprived of their British citizenship or excluded from the UK.