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Further Questions - 1010724 - The Leeds Schools' Sports Association

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Dear Charity Commission for England and Wales,

I have moved the following request for further information from my original FOI request, which can be found on this link.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/g...

Thank you for your response.
I have examined the documents you have provided and noted, that they make no reference to one particular site I am interested in, this of course, may be due to them all being withheld for reasons you have explained.
*In light of this are you able to confirm that LSSA are the owners of some land and half of the football pitch sited at Oldfield Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire?
*Are you also able to confirm that LSSA hold the other half of the above football pitch which is owned by Leeds City Council and held in a ‘Trust’ by LSSA?
*That the Charity Commission have given permission to LSSA to sell the above mentioned land and half of the football pitch to Leeds City Council, who are a connected person?
*Has the Charity Commission sought any further clarification in relation to the various discrepancies between the financial returns made to the Charity Commission all on the same day 20/1/2018?
To clarify this question your forms that were filled in by LSSA have the following different answers under the same or similar questions
A19 - Land or buildings?
In 2014 = Land and buildings owned by the charity not for charitable purposes.
In 2015 = Land and buildings owned by the charity not for charitable purposes.
In 2016 = Yes land or buildings are owned. No, they are not used for charitable purposes, used for investment or other purposes.
In 2017 = Yes land or buildings are owned. Yes, most or all are used for charitable purposes.
*Apart from their 2017 financial statement these appear to be in direct conflict with their charitable objects, which state TO ENDEAVOUR TO SECURE BETTER FACILITIES FOR PLAYING GAMES IN OPEN SPACES AND TO SECURE ADEQUATE EQUIPMENT FOR ALL GAMES IN ALL SCHOOLS, will the Charity Commission take any action where charities do not carry out their charitable objects?

The correspondence that you have attached that relates to the reinstatement of the LSSA as a Charity appears to have begun on 11/4/2013, when they contacted you having not returned any financial statements since 2009, following this contact LSSA appear to have further failed to return any financial statements for the next 5 additional years, before again contacting you by letter 16/11/2017 wishing to have the charity reinstated and you instructed them to submit their financial statements for the years 2012 through to 2017 inclusive within 15 working days of your response, which they again did not do, finally later returning only the years 2014-2018 inclusive on 20/1/2018.
* In light of the Charity LSSA not being officially recorded as being operational between 2011-2017 and not submitting any financial statements between 2009-2018, at what point would the land vested in them for the provision of sporting facilities, land which they abandoned in 2002 and members of the public have made requests to make use of, become the responsibility of Leeds City Council who are to take over the trust of the land in the event that LSSA cease to be a Charity since Leeds City Council are who they now appear to be ‘selling’ this land to for purposes other than those for which It was vested to them?

*I am also confused about the questions on your forms surrounding LSSA’s income as they state that they do not collect from the public, nor do they have any contract with Government or Local Government yet the LSSA AGM 2018 says that they reverse charge all schools in Leeds and the money is collected for them by Leeds City Council. Has this part of the form also been incorrectly filled in by LSSA?

Yours faithfully

Lindsay Reid

FOI Requests, Charity Commission for England and Wales

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RIGA FOI (Queue), Charity Commission for England and Wales

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Dear Ms Reid

Please find attached the Commission's response to your recent Freedom of
Information Request.

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Team

Charity Commission

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Dear Katherine O’Hare,

Thank you for the information regarding my various queries.

I am still unclear regarding the legality of one question.

You supplied the following link in relation to my question regarding ownership of the Land
https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/ieDecisio...
Also contained within the report at the above link is the following point made by Leeds City Council stating the requirement for LSSA to seek authorisation for the sale of the land from the Charity Commission.

4.6.6 - The LSSA must comply with the Charity Commission’s requirements to authorise the sale of the site.

In your reply you state that the Charity Commission hold no information in relation to the authorisation of the sale to Leeds City Council, who are a connected person.

If permission hasn’t been sought and the sale is to a connected person,
Will the sale be allowed by the Charity Commission to complete?
Will such a sale be illegal?
If permission were sought, from the Charity Commission, will permission be given without further investigations?

Yours sincerely,

Lindsay Reid

FOI Requests, Charity Commission for England and Wales

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RIGA Casework (Queue), Charity Commission for England and Wales

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Dear Ms Reid,

Please see attached our response to your request for information.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Breakspere

Information Rights and Complaints Manager

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Dear Charity Commission for England and Wales,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Charity Commission for England and Wales's handling of my FOI request 'Further Questions - 1010724 - The Leeds Schools' Sports Association'.

I asked the following ..

1. If permission hasn’t been sought and the sale is to a connected person, will the sale be allowed by the Charity Commission to complete?
2. Will such a sale be illegal?
3. If permission were sought, from the Charity Commission, will permission be given without further investigations?”

You said in your refusal of my request..

1. I confirm that we hold information relevant to your request.
2. However, I am refusing your request under section 21 of the Act. Section 21(1) states:
“Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section
1 is exempt information.”

You sad that this is because the information is available to me at the following link....

The information is exempt under section 21 of the Act because the information is reasonably accessible to you. I would refer you to the Commission’s guidance attached which sets out the position regarding the disposal of charity land generally, including any disposal to a connected person e.g. legal requirements and information required by the Commission –

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicatio... trustees-need-to-know-about-disposing-of-charity-land-cc28/sales-leases-transfers-or- mortgages-what-trustees-need-to-know-about-disposing-of-charity-land#disposals-that- need-the-commissions-authority.

However, this link is an error 404.

I have previously read the charity commission guidance for charity trustees disposal of charity land (if this is the same information as where the broken link you provided was going to take me) and as I understand it, your guidance says that permission is ALWAYS needed when the sale is to a connected person.
Additionally, as noted by me in my previous email, Leeds City Council (who are, or would be, the connected person, were this sale to complete) state, and confirm that they are in agreement with my interpretation of your guidance (as per the link you provided and I quoted in my previous reply), that they understand that permission must be sought by Leeds Schools' Sports Association from yourselves, the Charity Commission, for the sale to proceed.

From my understanding, your guidance does not give specific information of what actions (or lack of) under Charity Law, the Charity Commission is obliged to take in these particular circumstances, as laid out here and in my in previous emails, of this particular sale of Charity land, I have not yet had a clear response to my three questions, which, for convenience, I have listed again at the start of this email, therefore I would like to request that you supply by return the information, you have confirmed you hold, as requested, or please conduct an internal review in relation to this request.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/f...

Thank you

Yours faithfully,

Lindsay Reid

FOI Requests, Charity Commission for England and Wales

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RIGA FOI (Queue), Charity Commission for England and Wales

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Dear Ms Reid

Please find attached the Commissions response to your request for a
decision review.

Yours sincerely

Ms Jan Provost (Information Rights and Complaints Manager)

Jan Provost

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Dear Jan Provost

Thank you for your reply in which you explain possible actions in general terms once such a sale had gone ahead to a connected person without the required consent and an objection regarding such a sale was received.

You also explained the following to me.
The Commissions’ interest would be confined to considering whether there had been any mismanagement or misconduct by the trustees in relation to the decision and this would be decided on a case by case basis.

The sale of this particular land has not yet gone ahead, because of this I would like to ask if you can clarify the following point for me please?
Does the Charity Commission take any action or consider whether there had been any mismanagement or misconduct by the trustees in relation to the decision and prevent this sale or do you always wait until the sale has taken place before taking any action?

Yours faithfully

Lindsay Reid

FOI Requests, Charity Commission for England and Wales

Thank you for submitting your Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the
Charity Commission. We will respond within 20 working days.
 
If you have used this email address for a query that is not an FOI
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