Charity Commission calls in RSPCA

The RSPCA was summoned to meet the Charity Commission on 17 January to discuss the organisation’s approach to prosecutions after spending £327,000 on prosecuting the Heythrop Hunt.

During the case, district judge Tim Pattinson drew attention to the fact that the cost of the private prosecution was nearly 10 times that of the defence. The hunt was fined £7,000.

The meeting with the Charity Commission was set after a cross-party group of politicians, including Lord Heseltine, Kate Hoey MP and Simon Hart MP, former chairman and chief executive respectively of the Countryside Alliance, accused RSPCA trustees of failing in their “duty of prudence” to the organisation and its funds. They called on the Charity Commission to investigate.

The rest of this article appears in the 23rd January issue of Shooting Times.

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