The Order has been issued in the context of a finding of misconduct and / or mismanagement during the regulator’s ongoing inquiry into the charity, to address the charity’s previous failures and to ensure that its governance is improved for the future.
The move follows the appointment of two additional trustees at the charity – a centre of Islamic worship in north London – and the conclusion of extensive work by an Interim Manager appointed by the Commission to take temporary control of essential aspects of the charity’s running and to review its governance.
The regulator opened an inquiry into the Islamic Centre of England in November 2022 to investigate serious governance concerns. The Commission appointed the Interim Manager in May 2023 and, in parallel with her work, continued to investigate concerns about the running of the charity.
Breaches of previous advice and Orders
The Commission has taken regulatory action during the inquiry, which remains ongoing, on wide-ranging governance issues and breaches of previous advice and orders. These included more recently failure to fully comply with the Order appointing the Interim Manager and failure to fully comply with directions. The Commission considers these, and a range of other past breaches, mismanagement and misconduct in the administration of the charity. The trustees currently dispute some of these legal findings.
Section 84 Order
The Section 84 Order requires the trustees to take a range of actions to improve the charity’s operations, governance and financial oversight, with clear deadlines for compliance. Among these are that the trustees are instructed to ensure that all religious services, speakers and events further the objects of the charity and are in its best interests, complying with due diligence processes put in place by the Interim Manager. Similarly, the trustees are required to ensure the charity’s website and social media content is exclusively in furtherance of the charity’s purposes and that trustees and staff document their decisions appropriately. The Commission will continue to closely monitor the trustees’ compliance with these and other actions in the Order, and can take further regulatory action if the trustees fail to do so.
Changes to trustees
During the course of the Commission’s inquiry a requirement was removed from the charity’s governing document for one trustee to be the official UK religious representative of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the occupant left this role. This addressed regulatory concerns about the charity’s failure to manage the conflicts of interest and apparent lack of independence this caused, which were at odds with charity law.
Separately, the Interim Manager had overseen the appointment of the two new trustees and taken steps to improve the charity’s management and governance, particularly regarding speakers and events. The Commission has now discharged the Interim Manager, Emma Moody, after she implemented specific improvements asked of her by the Commission, with further improvements to be delivered by the trustees under the Order.
Charity Commission Chief Executive, David Holdsworth, said
The law requires, and the public expect, charities to operate exclusively for the public benefit. The vast majority of charities do so successfully, making a difference every day. As this case shows, when a charity fails to operate in line with its legal duties we will step in to take action. We now expect the trustees to take the required action directed by the Commission and will not hesitate to use further legal powers should that be necessary.
The Commission’s statutory inquiry is ongoing. It is the Commission’s practice to publish a report setting out its findings, regulatory actions and conclusions once an inquiry has concluded.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- A statutory inquiry is the Commission’s most serious form of investigation How the Charity Commission investigates charities – GOV.UK and our policy on media reporting of current regulatory work is available on gov.uk How the Charity Commission reports on its regulatory work – GOV.UK.
- The statutory inquiry into Islamic Centre of England is ongoing. How long our inquiries take vary from case-to-case. When an inquiry concludes we publish a report that detail the issues looked at, what actions were undertaken and what the outcomes were. These are on gov.uk.
- The Interim Manager’s duties included overseeing a successful process to recruit two new trustees to help to improve the charity’s governance, which is the focus of the Commission’s ongoing inquiry. There is information about the role of an Interim Manager on gov.uk.
- The Commission previously issued a statement to tackle misinformation about why the Centre was temporarily closed. This issue pre-dated the appointment of an Interim Manager.
- In legislation set by Parliament, a charity is an organisation set up with exclusively charitable purposes for the public benefit and subject to the High Court’s jurisdiction. Please see further information about what is a charity. Once an organisation is registered as a charity it can only be removed in extremely limited circumstances such as where it is no longer operating. It is not open to the Commission to remove charitable status as a sanction.
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