Trust welcomes clarification in judicial review
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust has issued a statement
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) has issued a statement concerning its recent participation in a judicial review claim brought by the advocacy organisation Cage.
The claim was heard in the High Court on 21 October. It concerned the Charity Commission’s actions towards the Trust and other charities in March this year, when the Commission requested ‘unequivocal assurances’ that they had ceased funding Cage. The move followed reports that the British militant Mohammed Emwazi – ‘Jihadi John’ – had been connected with Cage.
A settlement was agreed in the judicial review. It said that ‘trustees must be free to exercise their fiduciary powers and duties in light of the circumstances that exist at the time, if acting properly within their objects and powers and in the best interests of the charity’.
According to the statement, the Charity Commission ‘recognises that it has no power to require trustees to fetter the future exercise of their fiduciary powers under its general power to give advice and guidance’.
The Trust said: ‘We welcome the clarification that the Charity Commission does not seek to direct charities outside the scope of a formal statutory inquiry, and that it does not ask funding bodies to bind their future discretion. These are important principles that underpin the ability of charities to make their own decisions within the law to work on difficult issues and respond to changing need.’
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