Charity Commission spent £4.5k on briefing by PR firm

By Paul Jump, Third Sector, 9 February 2010

Consultants prepared chair Dame Suzi Leather and others for Public Administration Select Committee appearance

The Charity Commission paid nearly £4,500 to a public relations company to train senior personnel to appear before MPs in 2008, a parliamentary question has revealed.

In response to a query from shadow third sector minister Nick Hurd last week, commission chief executive Andrew Hind said the payment was made to Mandate Communications in September 2008 to help witnesses prepare for the commission's annual appearance in front of the Public Administration Select Committee the following month.

A commission spokeswoman said the witnesses were commission chair Dame Suzi Leather, Hind, director of policy and effectiveness Rosie Chapman and director of legal services Kenneth Dibble. She said the training consisted mainly of a specialist briefing about the committee, its members and issues previously discussed by it.

Hurd told Third Sector: "I don't think the Charity Commission should be spending taxpayers' money on helping them do a better job of explaining how they are spending taxpayers' money."

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charlie marshall

charlie marshall, 10 February 2010, 10:07

Considering the noble lady's experience public appearance I find this an astonishing waste of public money. Full details of the Committee, its memberships and its workings are available on the net and this should be all that is required. Appearing before this or any other committe is a matter of speaking clearly, sticking to the facts and speaking the truth. Disgraceful waste of public money

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Julie Fawcett

Julie Fawcett, 10 February 2010, 15:42

We should not get all over excited by this - for goodness sake think about how much everyone else spends on this kind of stuff. it is unfair to pillory the charity commission when this flows from all public sector organisations - it just hurts more when the word charity is involved. It was a job creation scheme that was absolutely fine while we were told we could afford it - now of course - we can't!!!

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John Broadhurst

John Broadhurst, 11 February 2010, 16:11

Professional mouthpieces should not need special coaching - after all, that is what they are highly paid for. In response to Julie Fawcett, of course it's fair to complain about OUR money being wasted. I assume by job creation scheme she means the Charity Commission

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Reg Chalmers

Reg Chalmers, 15 February 2010, 13:01

PR is what the Commission is all about. They're very selective about what they'll investigate. Going for high profile cases while ignoring more mundane, but equally important, affairs. Can't see why they need to import yet more of it.

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