A new non-executive director based in Yorkshire, who is a professional accountant, chair of a housing association and former chair of a local hospice joins the Commission’s board.

Baroness Stowell of Beeston MBE, Chair of the Charity Commission, has welcomed the appointment of Will Lifford to the regulator’s Board.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport today announced his appointment by the Secretary of State. Will Lifford’s three year term began on 18th January 2021 and he replaces Mike Ashley, whose term of office ended in November 2020.

Will Lifford is a Chartered Accountant who for 25 years was a partner at Grant Thornton, retiring in 2007 as UK Senior Audit Partner. In the last 13 years he has held a number of non-executive board positions in the charitable and wider public sector. These include: Chair of Martin House Children’s Hospice (until 2017), board member of the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (until 2020) and Entrust, regulator of the Landfill Communities Fund (until 2015).

Will Lifford is currently Chair of Yorkshire Housing, a housing association with 18,000 homes across Yorkshire. He is also a board member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and chairs its audit and risk assurance committee.

Baroness Stowell said:

I am really pleased to welcome Will to the Commission. He brings more regional diversity to the Board and together with his extensive knowledge and experience in the fields of accountancy and audit, as well as his experience of strategic leadership in the voluntary sector and regulation, will make a vital contribution to the Commission as we continue to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust – all the more important during these challenging times.

Will Lifford said:

I am delighted to have been appointed to the Charity Commission and look forward to working with the rest of the Board and the executive team. The Commission plays a vital role in ensuring charities maximise their impact in society, and I look forward to helping ensure the Commission delivers on its ambitious strategy in the years ahead.

ENDS

Will is a Yorkshire based Chartered Accountant who for 25 years was a partner at Grant Thornton, retiring in 2007 as UK Senior Audit Partner. In the last 13 years he has held a number of non-executive board positions in the charitable and wider public sector. These include: Chair of Martin House Children’s Hospice (until 2017), board member of the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (until 2020) and Entrust, regulator of the Landfill Communities Fund (until 2015).

Will is currently Chair of Yorkshire Housing, a housing association with 18,000 homes across Yorkshire. He is also a board member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority and chairs its audit and risk assurance committee.

This role is remunerated at £350 per day. This appointment has been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The Government’s Governance Code requires that any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years is declared. This is defined as holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation or candidature for election. Will Lifford has not declared any activity.

Sellafield Ltd has donated a further 156 recycled laptops and computers to schools across West Cumbria this month as part of its ongoing work to support student access to remote learning.

This builds on a donation of almost five hundred devices in December last year as part of a wider collaborative support effort alongside local authorities, suppliers and other agencies.

Emma Graham, a senior buyer within the information services organisation at Sellafield Ltd said:

We worked quickly through the WELL project to determine the immediate need from schools, alongside our supply chain partners at ATOS and Allvotec who worked tirelessly to refurbish as many laptops as we could.

OneFM also kindly supported deliveries this time around to help us move the devices to schools as quickly as possible”.

Emma Williamson, community resilience and social inclusion team leader at Copeland Borough Council, said:

In addition to the Sellafield Ltd laptops, the swift financial support we received from elsewhere has enabled us to provide much needed resources to children and young people, to access remote learning.

The £43,000 awarded by Cumbria County Council, Copeland Community Fund and members of the Sellafield supply chain is a testament to partnership working and demonstrates how pooling our resources can really benefit the local community and have a direct impact on those in need.

Jonathan Sunter, quality of education lead at Solway Community School said:

We still have a number of students completing their distance learning on parent’s mobile phones and we cannot thank Sellafield Ltd enough for all the equipment they have provided us so far”.

Sellafield Ltd is also working with the Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership to coordinate donations in the Warrington area.

The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into One Community Organisation over serious financial and governance concerns.

The charity’s purpose is to deliver support to the deaf community and those with special needs, by organising fundraising events to support online lectures and education programmes for these groups.

In April 2020, the Commission opened a compliance case after it identified inconsistencies with the information the trustees had reported to the Commission about the charity. This included, for example, conflicting information about whether or not the charity owned property.

As part of this case, the Commission examined the charity’s finances which led to concerns that the trustees may have understated the charity’s income and expenditure for 2017 and 2018.

The Commission also identified concerns around potential unauthorised trustee payments. The charity’s bank statements showed over £200,000 of charity funds were transferred via online payments to a trustee’s private bank account. The purpose of these payments is not clear.

The Commission therefore escalated its case to a statutory inquiry in December 2020 to examine these matters further.

The scope of the inquiry is to examine concerns around the trustees’ management of the charity’s resources and financial affairs, compliance with their general legal duties and responsibilities, and whether any failings identified are a result of misconduct and/or mismanagement by the trustees. The Commission may extend this scope if further regulatory concerns emerge.

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 are available on GOV.UK.

Ends.

Notes to editors:

1. View the charity’s entry on the register of charities.
2. The opening of an inquiry is not a finding of wrongdoing.
3. The Charity Commission is the independent, non-ministerial government department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Its purpose is to ensure charity can thrive and inspire trust so that people can improve lives and strengthen society.