Charity Commission chairman Orlando Fraser has warned charities the regulator “will be robust in holding to account any trustee” should their campaigning fail “to comply with our guidance, or the law on which it is based”.

Speaking at the Charity Law Association Conference last week the regulator’s chair, who is also a KC, said the “rule of law matters to me personally” and assured charities they are “free to campaign robustly in furtherance of their purposes”.

But he warned this must be lawful and charities “cannot commit or condone unlawful acts of civil disobedience or defame others, no matter how well such actions might go down with their core supporter base”.

In reference to the regulator’s social media guidance, which was released in September and confirmed charity leaders’ freedom of expression, he added that charities need to “take proportionate steps to mitigate the risks that are inherent” in this activity.

This includes advising trustees to be aware of the potential of content posted by charity leaders and staff personally, such as backing a particular political party, “being associated with the charity”.

He admitted the regulator is under “intense public pressure to take a certain approach” including some calling on him to “challenge supposedly ‘woke’ charities”.

“To them I have said that ‘wokeness’ is not a term that has any legal or regulatory meaning whatsoever, and that, for this reason, I wouldn’t really know where to start in tackling it,” he said.

He added that: “Charity campaigning must have a credible evidence base, and trustees must be able to show that a campaign is an effective means to a clearly defined charitable end - campaigning is never an end in itself.

“This may be self-evident to many of you as it is to me. But I often hear it suggested that there is something inherently beneficial in charities speaking out. Campaigning is no more inherently or universally beneficial than any other activity a charity might undertake – it is only right if it is right in the specific context of a charity and its work.”

Artificial Intelligence

Fraser also said that the Charity Commission is liaising with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s Office for Artificial Intelligence.

This is part of the “early stages of work to better understand how developments in artificial intelligence, AI, will impact charities and their work”.

“As regulator, we will never be, nor is it our ambition to become, a world-leading expert on the ever-changing applications of AI. But we must develop an ongoing understanding of the benefits and risks that using AI may present to charities,” he said.

“This will allow us to ensure that in this, as in other areas of charity activity, trustees are meeting their legal duties and responsibilities. It is already clear that AI presents particularly interesting questions around trustee responsibility and accountability.”

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