The House of Commons Committee of Privileges has called on Charity Commission chief executive David Holdsworth to apologise to MPs following his defence of the regulator's actions during its recent row with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

The Commission says Holdsworth, and its board, will comply with this request and issue an apology.

The spat centres on critical PHSO reports into the Commission’s handling of two sexual abuse cases at charities.

These were subject of a failed attempt by the charity regulator over the last year to bring a judicial review into the ombudsman’s remit that would have impacted their laying before parliament.

Holdsworth told the Committee that “it was never the intention for Parliament not to see the information”.

But the Committee said the legal action specifically sought “to quash the decision to provide Parliament with the information” and as a result Holdsworth’s statements “are patently untrue”.

“Mr Holdsworth should apologise to the House for repeatedly saying that the Commission’s legal action was not intended to quash the laying of the reports when that was precisely its purpose,” states the Committee in its report into its the regulator's action.

“It is our view that the Charity Commission clearly committed a contempt of Parliament in seeking through legal action to prevent the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration from laying special reports before the House.”

It added that the Commission’s board, “which backed the legal action, should take responsibility for that contempt and should apologise to the House forthwith”.

Charity Commission accepts findings ‘unreservedly’

Charity Commission chair Julia Unwin said: “We accept the Committee's report in full and apologise unreservedly.

“We should not, in hindsight, have persisted in challenging through the courts the laying of the two reports before Parliament.”

“We regret those decisions and are taking time to carefully review the Committee’s report and consider the lessons we need to learn.

“We anticipate that Parliament will formally debate the committee’s report in due course, but in the meantime we – the Board and Chief Executive – will be making immediate apologies to the House.”

During a Committee hearing last month, when Holdsworth gave his evidence, its chair Simon Hoare MP said that on assessing evidence around the disagreement, the regulator “does not, on the face of what we have heard, appear at all fit for purpose”.

The Committee had also accused the regulator of “blundering” into the row with the PHSO.

---