Governing Document and Policies for Middlesbrough Diocesan Trust
Dear Charity Commission for England and Wales,
Please supply me electronic copies of the following documents for Middlesbrough Diocesan Trust, Charity No 233748.
1) Governing Document
2) Risk management policy
3) Investment policy
4) Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries policy
5) Conflicts of interest policy
6) Volunteer management policy
7) Complaints handling policy
8) Most recently submitted Annual Return
Thank you
Yours faithfully,
James Preece
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Dear James Preece
C-461575
I write in response to your email of 23 June 2017 in which you requested
the following information in relation to Middlesbrough Diocesan Trust
(charity number: 233748):
Please supply me electronic copies of the following documents for
Middlesbrough Diocesan Trust, Charity No 233748.
1) Governing Document
2) Risk management policy
3) Investment policy
4) Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries policy
5) Conflicts of interest policy
6) Volunteer management policy
7) Complaints handling policy
8) Most recently submitted Annual Return
I have considered your request under the Freedom of information Act 2000
(FOIA) and can confirm that we do hold some information which falls within
the scope of your request.
Please find the governing documents attached. The 1928 trust deed is
amended by the 1997 deed. Please note that that I have provided these
under the Commission’s obligation to provide these documents under section
18 of the Charities Act 2011.
Please also find the latest Annual Return we hold attached. I have
redacted the date of birth of the charity contact under section 40(2) FOIA
because this constitutes third party personal data for the purposes of the
Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). Section 40 (2) provides that personal data
about third parties is exempt information if one of the conditions set out
in section (3) is satisfied, namely whether any of the data protection
principles would be contravened by the disclosure. Under the Act,
disclosure of this information would breach the fair processing principle
contained in the DPA where it would be unfair to that person and/or is
confidential. I have also redacted the bank details which appear in this
Annual Return under section 41 FOIA because this information was provided
in confidence.
We do not hold any information in response to questions 2 – 7. The
Charity Commission is not required to hold these documents. We would
suggest that you approach the trustees directly to ask for copies. The
charity’s contact details are available on our website at -
[1]http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Sho....
I hope my response has been clear. If you think our decision is wrong, you
can ask for it to be reviewed. Such requests should be submitted within
three months of the date of our response and should be addressed to the
Charity Commission at PO Box 211, Bootle, L20 7YX (email: [2][email
address]) More information about our Freedom of Information Act review
service can be found on the following link on our website:
[3]https://www.gov.uk/government/organisati....
If, after this, you remain unhappy with the decision, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally,
the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our review
procedure. The ICO can be contacted at the Information Commissioner’s
Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (email:
[4][email address].)
Yours sincerely
Rebyn Buleti
W: [5]https://www.gov.uk/charity-commission
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On track to meet your filing deadline? Charities have ten months from
their financial year end to file their Annual Return and Accounts. Find
out more at www.charitycommission.gov.uk. Remember to file on time and use
our online services.
Consider the environment. Please don't print this e-mail unless you really
need to.
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Becky Bbear left an annotation ()
James:
The Commission won't have the information numbered 2-7 in your request, those are internal documents/policies which charities are not routinely required to supply to the Commission.
You would need to ask the charity for them and it would be up to the trustees to decide if they chose to provide them - since charities themselves are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, only Government Agencies/Authorities/Bodies.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not require Authorities to collect or collate information they do not already hold just so they can respond to an information request.
The Commission will also not have the charity's most recent Annual Return as requested, because those are online forms from which information is extracted after submission for the Commission's purposes. The Form itself is therefore 'blank' in its raw state and only consists of a series of questions charities answer by ticking boxes or typing short confirmations.
The extracted information appears on the charity's page on the Commission website and is therefore already publicly available - as that page is updated after each Return is received and processed.
Some information provided in an Annual Return is exempt from disclosure under the 2000 Act - such as a charity's bank account details, the private email addresses/telephone numbers of trustees or whoever submits the Return and any other personal information which falls withing the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.
This means all you can expect to receive in response to the request is a copy of the charity's governing document, which you could just request anyway simply by emailing the Commission through fcemailteam@charitycommission.gsi.gov.uk and would likely receive sooner than requesting under FOI timescales.
It may be an idea to modify your request based on the above, so they only have to respond to the governing document part.
Hope this helps while your waiting for the Commission's response.
Becky