Charitable Concerns

Charity leaders raise concerns about anti-advocacy clauses in government awarded contracts

A group of Charity leaders have called upon the government to end anti-advocacy clauses which prevent charities from delivering government services through campaigning.

The call came in the form of an open letter to The Times, whose signatories include: Vicky Browning, CEO, Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations; Craig Bennett, CEO, Friends of the Earth; Kathy Evans, CEO, Children England; Claire Godfrey, head of policy and campaigns, Bond; Julia Kaufmann, chair, Small Charities Coalition; Amanda Khozi Mukwashi, chief executive, Christian Aid; Polly Neate, chief executive, Shelter; Paul Parker, recording clerk, Quakers in Britain; Paul Streets, chief executive, Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales; Sue Tibballs, chief executive; Sheila McKechnie Foundation and Debra Allcock Tyler, chief executive, Directory of Social Change. The letter was written in response to The Times' front page story on 12 October which claimed that the Department for Work and Pensions is blocking charities from raising concerns about their controversial universal credit system.

The report claimed that 'Charities and companies working with universal credit claimants have been banned from criticising or harming the reputation of the work and pensions secretary Esther McVey.' And that at least 22 organisations, including charities, have been required to sign gagging clauses as part of their involvement with programmes to help people back to work.

Contract clauses

The contracts include a clause which state that groups receiving the money (the contracts are worth around £1.8 billion) must 'pay the utmost regard to the standing and reputation' of the work and pensions secretary and must 'not do anything which may attract adverse publicity' to her, damage her reputation or harm the public's confidence in her.

They also include a publicity clause which states that the organisations 'shall pay the utmost regard to the standing and reputation of the Authority and shall not do anything which may damage the reputation of the Authority; bring the Authority into disrepute; attract adverse publicity to the Authority; or harm the confidence of the public in the Authority.' The 'Authority' is defined in the contract as the Secretary of State for work and pensions. Earlier this month, there was concerns raised about charity's ability to speak out after the Department...