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10.35 pm
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Paul Boateng): The whole House has heard my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, North (Helen Jones), who advocated most powerfully and trenchantly the interests of one of the most vulnerable groups in our society--those living with learning disabilities--and put a proper constituency interest at the forefront. Her speech and her assiduous investigation of this matter do her great credit and are in the best traditions of the House and Adjournment debates such as this.
My hon. Friend has raised those issues outside the Chamber with me, with the Minister of State, Department of Health--my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton)--and with our officials. I am glad that she is meeting the chief Charity Commissioner next week as she will have the opportunity to raise with him some of the detailed points that she has shared with us tonight. I know that he is looking forward to the meeting, which will greatly assist the commission in fulfilling its responsibilities under charity law.
The whole House will be aware that each of our constituencies contains a number of small and medium- sized voluntary organisations and charities that provide a range of services to the national health service, local authorities and other statutory bodies. They are an enormously important part of the infrastructure of our communities and the Government recognise and value the role of the voluntary sector. In the millennium year in particular--in which we are focusing on the concept of an active community--it is important to pay tribute to its work, but it is also important to emphasise, as my hon. Friend has done, that transparency of operation and accountability are essential. The sector must show good governance at every level. That is a particular responsibility for trustees and their officials, chief executives and staff and they must take it seriously.
Similarly, those who fund such bodies are responsible for having in place proper mechanisms for holding them to account for public money. I know that my hon. Friend the Minister of State will look carefully into the concerns that my hon. Friend raised about the way in which services were provided by Integrate Services and financed by the health authority. He will have in mind--as we all do in government--the importance of public money being used properly. He will want to be satisfied that that money has been properly accounted for, and that the interests of the patients and those receiving care have held primacy
of place at all times. It is the particular responsibility of the health authority in this instance and of funding bodies generally, to ensure that that is so.
There is a role for social services in assessing the quality of care, and it is important to draw my hon. Friend's remarks to the attention of the health authority and the relevant social services department to ensure that they are fully acquainted with the facts and the concerns that have been raised in the Chamber tonight.
I should like to say a few words about the particular role of charity law and the way in which the Charity Commission has acted in this case. The Charity Commission was first told of the allegations last year, when these problems were brought to its attention. It was made aware of the serious allegations about the conduct of the chief executive and possible financial irregularities.
The charity's trustees commissioned a series of reports into those allegations. The commission received those reports in September 1999, and on 23 September opened
a formal inquiry under section 8 of the Charities Act 1960. That inquiry obviously cannot cover matters outside the commission's jurisdiction, which is limited to the oversight of charity law. Issues relating to employment and care fall outside its jurisdiction. I assure my hon. Friend that the commission will not hesitate to use all the powers at its disposal to safeguard charitable funds and to ensure that all the papers and evidence that it ought to have sight of are made available to it.
The commission is looking into the allegations of misappropriation of the charity's assets and financial impropriety. I cannot anticipate the inquiry's conclusions, but I understand that it is almost complete. It is vital that public confidence in the voluntary sector is maintained by ensuring that such inquiries are robust, and that their outcome is properly made known.
Question put and agreed to.
Adjourned accordingly at seventeen minutes to Eleven o'clock.
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