The actors Dame Penelope Keith and Dame Siân Phillips have won a hard-fought apology from England’s charity watchdog after it admitted to blunders in its handling of a case involving a £40m actors’ hardship fund.
The pair, who with others were removed from the board of the Actors’ Benevolent Fund (ABF) two years ago in what they argued was an unlawful coup by rival trustees, had accused the Charity Commission of mismanaging its stewardship of the charity.
The coup led to a series of high-profile spats involving some of the UK’s best-known stars of TV, film and stage, as well as a raft of costly legal challenges.
The commission finally closed its long-running compliance case into the ABF on Friday as it sought to draw a line under what it said had been a “disruptive” period for the charity, whose members elected a new board earlier this year.
While Phillips, 91, welcomed the new start for the charity, she accused the watchdog of attempting to “brush things under the carpet” and said it was “hard not to see” her and others taking the case to the parliamentary ombudsman.
The saga has proved acutely embarrassing for the watchdog after Keith, Phillips and other well-known ex-trustees accused it of misusing its powers, endorsing breaches in company law and using “PR speak” to try to cover up its mistakes.
The commission publicly apologised on Friday to former trustees over aspects of its handling of the case, just a fortnight after it had told Keith in a letter that “in the wider circumstances” it did not consider that a public apology was “proportionate”.
Although the commission has argued that it had always acted to try to find pragmatic solutions to a complex situation, it has struggled to counter criticisms of its conduct from a wealthy, determined and well-connected group of ex-trustees, backed with expensive legal opinion.
The ABF, whose patron is King Charles and whose famous past presidents include Sir Laurence Olivier and Sir John Gielgud, operates hardship funds for actors and stagehands in England and Wales who are in need. It gave out £900,000 in grants to beneficiaries in 2022, according to its latest published accounts.
Phillips said: “The Commission’s statement is riddled with errors and seeks to brush things under the carpet by refusing fully to reflect serious failings in its processes and understanding of the law.”
She added: “The commission should, by its very nature, act fairly and impartially at all times. However, in our case it bought a one-sided, false narrative and has used that to cover up its own failings. It is only through incredibly hard work and good fortune – of having means and a public profile – that our group of excluded trustees has been able to challenge this regulator and bring our charity back into safer hands for the sake of its beneficiaries.”
Helen Earner, the commission’s director of regulatory services, said: “This has been a difficult time for all involved and we acknowledge some parties remain unhappy. We have ourselves learned lessons from this case and are already taking these forward in how we handle other cases where trustee appointment is disputed.”
She added: “We have also apologised for not including all past and present trustees in the early stages of our case, which was a fair challenge to our approach, but has not had a material impact on the overall outcome.”
The commission said in a statement: “After a difficult, damaging dispute which has diverted energy and resource away from the charity’s beneficiaries, the ABF membership has elected a trustee board that endorses the need to draw a line under the disruptive period.”
The new board includes the actors Simon Callow of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Birds of a Feather’s Lesley Joseph, and the barrister and TV presenter Rob Rinder. It is jointly chaired by Alex Macqueen, a star of the political comedy The Thick of It, and the performer and author Hannah Whittingham.
A spokesperson for the ABF said the closure of the case was a “hugely positive step forward” for the charity and added: “The commission is fully satisfied that all matters raised have been dealt with by the ABF and that the new board elected in January is focused on prioritising the best interests of the charity and its beneficiaries.”
