Common Purpose expenditure and invoices

Bob MacLean made this Freedom of Information request to Charity Commission for England and Wales

The request was partially successful.

From: Bob MacLean

18 July 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Please detail total expenditure by the Charity Commission on Common
Purpose courses for each of the following years: 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 to date.

Please also supply a copy of the invoice for each Common Purpose
course paid for by this organisation.

By "Common Purpose", I mean the training organisation of that name:
http://www.commonpurpose.org/home.aspx

Yours faithfully,

Robert MacLean

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21 August 2008

Sent request to Charity Commission for England and Wales again, using a new contact address.

From: Web Enquiries
Charity Commission for England and Wales

21 August 2008

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From: CCD Caseworking Management
Charity Commission for England and Wales

30 August 2008

Dear Mr MacLean,

Thank you for your email enquiry of 21st August.

The Charity Commission, as the regulator of charities, does not supply
courses to charities and so the information you have requested is not
available from the Commission.

If the charity has entered into contracts with another organisation for
the provision of training courses you should approach that organisation
(or the charity itself) for the information you require.

Yours sincerely

Tony Robinson

Charity Commission Direct - Caseworking Team

t: 0845 300 0218

f: 0151 703 1555

e: If replying on this issue: [1][email address] or
for new issues: [2][Charity Commission request email]

a: PO Box 1227, Liverpool, L69 3UG

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From: CCD Caseworking Management
Charity Commission for England and Wales

30 August 2008

------------------- Original Message

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From: Eccleston, Margaret
Charity Commission for England and Wales

17 September 2008


Attachment Common Purpose Invoices.pdf
422K Download View as HTML


Dear Mr MacLean

Further to our email response dated 30 August 2008, please accept our
apologies for the misinterpretation of your original freedom of
information request.

I can confirm that the Charity Commission has made 6 payments totalling
**16,426.50 to Common Purpose. These payments are detailed below by
calendar year:

Year Amount

2000 **2,937.50 (1 payment)

2002 **8,636.25 (3 payments)

2004 **4,852.75 (2 payments)

I have attached copies of the invoices for 5 of the payments made to
Common Purpose. Personal data has been redacted in line with the Data
Protection Act 1998. I have also redacted the bank account details of
Common Purpose. Please note that there is not a copy invoice for the
payment made in 2000 as it has been destroyed in line with our
accounting policy.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Eccleston

Information Officer

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Richard Jackson left an annotation ( 6 October 2008)

Follow-up request for unredacted copies made: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/un...

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S.McCaw left an annotation (24 June 2009)

I have been surprised at the Charities Commission's refusal to uphold my Complaint regarding "Common Purpose" being a charity, yet having clearly political motives. They state:

The advancement of education for the public benefit and in particular but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing to educate men and women from a broad range of geographical political ethnic institutional social and economic backgrounds in constitutional civic economic and social studies with special emphasis on civil and social awareness and responsibility in the United Kingdom and elsewhere provided always that nothing contained in the Memorandum and Articles of Association shall authorise or be deemed to authorise the carrying on of any activity for any purposes save those regarded as charitable by the laws of England and Wales.

There is no evidence that the charity is acting outside of these exclusively charitable objects or in a political manner, or benefits private individuals at the expense of public benefit.

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Liz R (Account suspended) left an annotation ( 8 March 2010)

Governments need policies not training by outside and possibly extremist organisations

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