The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a statutory inquiry into Support the Heroes (registered charity number 1155853) and appointed an interim manager to run the charity. The inquiry was opened on 10 November 2016.

The charity has objects to support those serving or who have served in the Armed Forces. The charity currently furthers its objects by making grants to other charities.

The regulator opened the inquiry following its investigation into a number of complaints about the charity, in particular about its fundraising activities. The Commission has serious concerns about an agreement that the charity has entered with a commercial fundraising company. It is particularly concerned about the transparency of the charity’s fundraising arrangements and the ability of the public to make an informed decision about donating to the charity. The regulator is also examining the charity’s governance arrangements and the ability of the trustees to avoid or manage potential conflicts of interest. The Commission is also liaising with the Fundraising Regulator about its concerns with the charity’s fundraising practices.

As a result of these serious concerns the Commission ordered the trustees not to part with any of the charity’s property on 11 November 2016, as well as directing them to cease all fundraising while it conducts further investigations. The Commission froze the charity’s and subsidiary’s bank accounts on 18 November 2016.

The Commission appointed Brian Johnson of HW Fisher & Company as interim manager on 9 December 2016 to assist the Commission in swiftly addressing its regulatory concerns. The interim manager is appointed with all the powers and duties of a trustee and will act to the exclusion of the current charity trustees. This is a temporary appointment and will be reviewed on a regular basis in line with normal procedures.

The inquiry will examine the administration, governance and management of the charity by the trustees, in particular the extent to which the trustees have:

• ensured that conflicts of interest in the charity and its subsidiary have been adequately avoided or managed
• acted in the charity’s best interests and acted in accordance with their legal duties
• responsibly managed the charity’s resources and acted with reasonable care and skill in respect of its fundraising agreement with a professional fundraiser and associated risks to the charity’s property
• adequately protected the charity’s reputation and managed significant risks to public trust and confidence in the charity especially with regards to the conduct and reporting of fundraising activities conducted by the charity or on its behalf

The charity’s trustees have filed an appeal with the First-tier Tribunal (Charity) challenging the regulator’s decision to appoint an interim manager.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on its website.

The charity’s details can be viewed on the Commission’s online charity search tool.

Ends

PR 05/17

Notes to editors

1. The charity was featured in the programme ‘The Great Military Charity Scandal’ which was broadcast on BBC One Scotland at 19:00, Tuesday 8 November 2016.

2. Fundraising is subject to a self-regulatory system. The Fundraising Regulator regulates all types of fundraising by charities based in England and Wales and adjudicate concerns and complaints about fundraising against the Code of Fundraising Practice. The Commission does however have a role in fundraising regulation where there is evidence that trustee actions or failings, in fulfilling their duties towards their charity, pose a serious risk to the charity or where it is identified that there is a serious risk to charitable funds, or to public trust and confidence.

3. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.

4. Search for charities on our online register.

5. Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the Commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.

6. The Commission’s decision to announce the opening of a statutory inquiry is based on whether it is in the public interest to do so and with consideration of our objective to increase public trust and confidence in charities.

I am very proud to be here at the Massuah Institute for the Study of the Holocaust on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I would like to thank the leadership and staff of the centre and Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked.

One of the most distressing conversations I have had in my time in Israel was in my first couple of weeks. I was visiting Cafe Britannia, a meeting place for Holocaust survivors, in Eshkol Regional Council. I spoke to several survivors that day, but one conversation really stuck with me. A lady in her 90s who had lived through the Holocaust in Romania told me how, in old age, the memories had got worse. In her youth, as she came to Israel and built a family, a home and a country, she had been able to contain those memories and look to the future. But now, with time for reflection and perhaps some loneliness, the memories of that terrible time – of family members lost and lives devastated – had come flooding back.

It was a stark, terrible reminder of the continuing human cost of the worst crime in history.

As time passes, there are fewer survivors. We must cherish them while we can. The responsibility becomes even greater for all of us – governments, civil society, individuals – to preserve the memory. In the UK, Holocaust Memorial Day has been marked each year since 2001. In 2016, around 6,000 different events took place across the UK. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, whose patron is HRH The Prince of Wales, has chosen as its theme for this year – How can life go on? They will ask audiences to think about what happens after genocide and our own responsibilities in the wake of such a crime.

David Cameron, when he was Prime Minister, launched the UK Holocaust Commission to ensure the preservation of the memory. I was with him and the members of the Commission when they met at Yad Vashem in April 2014. One of their main recommendations was that a new Holocaust Memorial should be created. The British Government has since announced that it will be built right next to The Houses of Parliament by the River Thames. The design competition is underway and the memorial should be completed within a couple of years.

The Holocaust Memorial Foundation undertakes many other activities, including ensuring that Holocaust education is a compulsory part of history education for 11-14 year olds; taking 28,000 students and teachers to Auschwitz-Birkenau; and helping the Anne Frank Trust work with more than 50,000 students in British schools.

Holocaust remembrance is vital. But it is also futile if we do not tackle contemporary anti-Semitism. We make a grave mistake if we think this is only a problem of the past.

The UK is one of the safest places in the world to be Jewish. The Jewish community in the UK is stable in terms of numbers, and thriving in every other sense. It makes a precious contribution to Britain. Levels of anti-Semitism are low as measured by international surveys. But we cannot ignore the fact that the number of anti-Semitic attacks has increased in recent years.

Theresa May, both when we she was Home Secretary and now as Prime Minister, has been clear in her determination to fight anti-Semitism. The Government works closely with the Community Security Trust to protect the Jewish community in the UK. And Prime Minister May announced last month that the UK would be one of the first countries formally to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, and that the British Government would confront all those who seek to undermine the right of Jewish people to live free of fear and harassment.

I pay tribute to the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which has done so much over the last 20 years to rally international support for Holocaust education, remembrance and research. This cannot just be a national responsibility – it requires effective international leadership. Sir Eric Pickles leads this work for the UK. Other organisations such as the OSCE also have a vital role to play. We would like to see the OSCE adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism as soon as possible. And are working with European partners to share best practice, for example from our own Community Security Trust. The CST’s Police Officer’s Guide to Judaism is being translated into several European languages.

For someone of my generation, the Holocaust was one of the central moral facts of our education. Sometimes, as I look at the appalling anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial that can be found so easily online, I wonder if that is still the case today. But then I think of the meeting I have with the Holocaust Education Trust’s young ambassadors. Each year, around 20 of them come from the UK to Israel – none Jewish, but all committed to understanding and preserving the memory of the Holocaust and learning its lessons for our own societies today, as well as getting to know Israel and Judaism. The conversation is profound and inspiring. It gives me hope.

Thanks you again for inviting me to speak here today. It has been a great privilege.

Full details of how the Institute for Apprenticeships will operate have today (27 January 2017) been set out in an operational plan for consultation alongside the names of 8 members of the board appointed to run the institute.

One of the institute’s main jobs when it starts operating in April 2017 will be to support the government’s drive to deliver 3 million quality apprenticeships by 2020, and that businesses get the skilled workforce they need to prosper, so it is vital that employers are well represented.

That is why the board will be made up primarily of employers, business leaders and their representatives.

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Robert Halfon said:

It is fantastic to see such a diverse board who will bring their varied and high-level experience to the Institute for Apprenticeships to ensure apprenticeships are of the highest quality they can be.

With employer expertise at its heart, the Institute for Apprenticeships will play a crucial role in raising the prestige of apprenticeships and ensuring employers can get the skilled workforce they desperately need.

The operational plan, published for consultation, will set out how the institute will take the lead on a number of ongoing reforms to improve the apprenticeship system. It details how the institute will provide advice to the government on funding and ensure employers get the quality skills that they need from the apprenticeship system.

Following consultation, the plan will set out how the Institute for Apprenticeships will deliver its functions to:

• improve the quality of apprenticeships
• regulate the quality of apprenticeship standards and assessment plans
• provide advice to government on the pricing of apprenticeship standards
• establish how the institute will collaborate with partners to drive quality across the apprenticeships system
• gain more information and insight on how we will lead the reforms to technical education

Shadow Chair for the Institute for Apprenticeships Antony Jenkins said:

I believe this is an excellent, high-calibre board that will help the institute drive up the quality of apprenticeships.

Today’s publication of the draft operational plan is the culmination of lots of hard work and engagement over the last 6 months and I am very grateful to all the stakeholders who have helped us prepare it.

The introduction of an apprenticeship levy from April 2017 represents the biggest set of changes to apprenticeship funding since the re-introduction of modern apprenticeships in the mid-1990s.

1) Institute for Apprenticeships Board:

Dr Katherine Barclay:

• Chair of the Life Science and Industrial Sciences Apprenticeship trailblazer
• currently Pfizer UK lead for academic liaison, with responsibility for delivering apprenticeship reform at a national science industry level and collaborative early talent management strategies at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level
• chartered chemical engineer and experienced people manager

Sir Gerry Berragan:

• was a career soldier for 37 years finishing as Adjutant General, responsible for all army personnel matters
• was the army’s apprentices ambassador in 2008 to lead the effort to make the army the largest apprenticeships provider in the country, offering more than 45 nationally-recognised training schemes

Bev Robinson:

• has over 20 years’ experience in further and higher education colleges
• is on the Lancashire LEP Skills and Employment Board and is non-executive director and chair of the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Economic Development Company
• Director of the National College for Onshore Oil and Gas
• Principal of Blackpool and the Fylde College and previously member of Lord Sainsbury’s panel on technical education

Paul Cadman:

• Human Resources (HR) Director for Walter Smith Fine Foods Limited since 1998
• Walter Smith Fine Foods Limited were chosen as ‘Medium Employer of the Year’ winner in recognition of their commitment to developing local young people through apprenticeships in the National Apprenticeship Awards ceremony in 2013
• has been one of the government’s apprentice ambassadors since 2012 and is chair of 2 trailblazer groups: ‘developing butchery apprenticeship standards’ and ‘learning and development standards’

Dame Fiona Kendrick:

• Chair and CEO of Nestle UK and Ireland since 2012
• she has a passion for the youth employment and skills agenda, and is leading a number of lighthouse projects in this area both inside and outside Nestle
• the Nestle Academy brings together graduate and apprenticeship programmes, direct entry schemes and vocational training in order to deliver more flexible entry points and alternative routes to higher education for people
• she was UK Commissioner for Employment and Skills and played a lead role in supporting the development and delivery of strategies for skills and employment across the 4 UK nations
• she was President of the Food and Drink Federation from January 2015 to December 2016. She previously led the organisation’s skills and competitiveness agenda and co-chaired the UK Food and Drink Export Forum
• in the 2015 New Year’s Honour’s list Fiona was created Dame Commander of the British Empire for services to the food industry and support for the skills and opportunities for young people

Dame Asha Khamka:

• Principal and Chief Executive, West Nottinghamshire College Group since May 2006 – one of the largest colleges in the country
• over 25 years’ experience in further education
• on a number of boards, including the Education Honours Committee
• is the founding trustee of the Inspire and Achieve Foundation, whose main objective is to raise aspirations of working-class young people

Robin Millar CBE:

• Chair of Blue Raincoat Chrysalis Group
• enrolled as a music technology apprentice at the age of 24
• an Honorary Professor at the London College of Music, a Fellow of the Association of Professional Recording Services and a member of the UK Human Genetics Commission
• served on the creative Industries Sector Skills Council, National Skills Academy and then as a trustee of the Creative and Cultural Skills between 2006 and 2016
• currently serving on the Industry Steering Group advising the shadow board no setting up the new National College for Creative and Cultural industries

Toby Peyton-Jones:

• started his career as an officer in the Royal Engineers
• after an international career including working in China and Germany he was appointed to the Executive Management Board of Siemens Plc in 2008, heading up HR for Siemens in the UK and now Northern Europe
• throughout his career he has been a passionate international voice championing education and particularly vocational education most recently as a Commissioner for UK Commission for Employment and Skills

2) Read the consultation.