Scholar Gypsy

A pictoral explanation of why this was a good word to use.

I think I would give up most of my Trustee roles if the charities concerned were not limited companies!

I think a pitching motion is better than not pitching. The former may be less comfortable, but the latter implies you are going through the waves. This is more of an issue with longer boats. (Pool of London, 2018).

I agree. A fair question for Govt to consider is whether CRT is well governed - under whatever legal structure is used. That's a key bit of due diligence for them, indeed for any funding organisation.

Interesting. I'm not sure I would buy your last sentence, in my experience it's not the way that Government spending decisions are taken. There are (and will always need to be) backstop provisions relating to the heritage assets - which are held in Trust from the Government in a linked charity.

Not at all. As I said, it would be possible for a charity to be classified to the private sector but still fall foul of the CC guidance (I think that's all it is) on government control. Your original article claimed that the classification to the public sector in and of itself causes a problem for charitable status: I still think that is a red herring. The Commission will make their own judgement under their legislation and case law, looking at the Governance arrangements for CRT. They might even offer advice to CRT on what to do ...

I'd be interested in understanding this advice: "Having received advice that CaRT were aware of the ONS classification and obliged to report it under charitable law". It's certainly the case that if the Trustees would need to report if they felt they had taken decisions contrary to their charitable objects (under the serious incident reporting protocols), but I am struggling to see why Trustees would be obliged to report the ONS decision as such to the CC. The latter will know that there are many charities that are classified to the public sector, and have been for many years. It's also the case that there could be charities that ONS classify to the private sector but still fall foul of one of the tests in the Commission's guidance, RR7. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/358888/rr7text.pdf - and as I say above in that case the Trustees would be required to report this. I'm also unclear quite what you are trying to achieve?

That is a good question. Sorry for the delay, I have been doing some boating today. There are broadly two ways that I can think of: 1) as part of the financial memorandum - typically put in place between a government department and an agency/quango/public corporation that they sponsor, to set out various principles that the agency etc has to follow, reporting requirements etc. This is normally agreed by both parties, in my experience; 2) as part of a grant letter or a funding agreement that is tied to a particular slug of money. Put crudely, if the organization wants the money then they need to sign up to these terms. Again, there is scope for debate as to whether the "rules" are appropriate, or proportionate to the risk that they are being used to manage. So the sponsor department (DEFRA in this case) does not need an specific authority - all this is ancilliary to the powers that is uses to pay the grant to CRT. In theory (I am not a lawyer) their actions could be challenged by means of judicial review, but I am not aware of this ever happening in this area of activity.

Your first point is correct. Just because CRT (or any organisation) has the legal powers to do something, it doesn't mean they would be "allowed" to do it. In this context the key document is the grant funding letter/agreement, which should set out various things that CRT are required to do, or not do, in return for the money. There would still be some constraints here even if CRT were classified to the private sector. (For example many funding bodies - local authorities, charitable trusts, philanthropic donors etc - will ask/require bodies they fund to pay at least the Living Wage to all their staff.). The constraints vary a lot across the public sector, eg rather tight for government departments, middling for academy schools, looser for public corporations, whether financial (nationalised banks) or non-financial. (CRT are the latter, not the former).

Thanks - sorry for getting myself confused. Given there's nothing new here, I find your last sentence hard to believe. There may be governance issues that Defra want to sort anyway? It is also possible that HMT are trying to promulgate more of the rules/guidance in Managing Public Money, but that is just speculation on my part.

Just to confuse the picture even more, small parishes (below £100,000) are excepted charities, which is not quite the same as exempt charities (the latter includes Academy Trusts and a number of other parts of the public sector), where the CC has a more limited regulatory role. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/exempt-charities-cc23 There are very good reasons for Defra and CRT to want to get CRT moved back to their previous private sector classification. Being a public sector body can lead to a number of restrictions on (eg) banking arrangements, borrowing powers, ability to use assets as security etc etc, as set out in an exciting document called Managing Public Money. Either the CC accept the objects of CRT as being charitable, or they don't, and that is not affected by what the ONS say. The formal (eg fiduciary) duties of the Trustees are not affected.

I finally got to take a boat to St Katherine's Dock in London today. I wasn't paying the mooring fees. https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2023/03/01/limehouse-to-st-katherines/

I am really not convinced there is much difference between a charitable Trust and other forms of charity - the test applied to its objects is the same (ie what it can do), and other constraints (eg on payment of Trustees, handling conflicts of interest, and all the other areas covered by the CC guidance). Some charities are also companies, and some are unincorporated. There is a major difference in terms of who appoints the Trustees, eg in charities with members, they appoint the Trustees (who appoint the Chief Executive), but this is not the case for CRT (I think). There will have been quite a debate back in 2012 about exactly how to set up CRT and transfer assets and liabilities to it. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/charity-types-how-to-choose-a-structure

This article makes a category error. There are loads of charities that are in the public sector, for example British Library Thousands of schools that are in Academy Trusts Further Education Colleges (on which the ONS have recently opined) etc etc

When you cross the Wash you need to be careful not to stray into the Holbeach bombing range, still in active use... to the west of point C here

Thrapston is on the River Nene, as is Ashton. (The latter used to be the location of the World Conker Championships, but that may not be relevant). Another useless bit of information, the Port of London's new survey boat has found around 800 possible UXB (or test weapons) on the tidal Thames....

Lots in the Fens of course and on the Nene. All but seven on the Nene are electrically operated. Here's a little video of Bottisham on the River Cam.

That light would be quite good for illuminating the towpath, when you are moored...

Sorry if this has been posted before - I've not read the whole thread - but here is a response from a Calor to a GOBA member .. Dear Mr XXX Thank you for taking the time to contact me and highlight your concerns over the recent announcement about our small cylinder range. This decision is not one we have taken lightly but it is essential to enable us improve the reliability and availability of our overall cylinder supply operations. As outlined in our original announcement, we do understand that it will impact some users of these products, who will need to make modifications or source alternative products in order to continue using certain facilities. We have offered suggestions for different products in our range and also some alternative products, but we also know that the market is a competitive one and other suppliers provide similar sized products to those we are withdrawing. Spaces and lockers that have been purpose built for a specific cylinder size (e.g. as you mention in relation to the Boat Safety Scheme) were not part of a Calor initiative and we cannot be held responsible for continual supply of the products on this basis. I know this is not the decision you would like us to make, but it is vital for us to rationalise the range and make service improvements. Yours sincerely Rogerio Lopes Rogerio Lopes Executive PA Tachbrook Park Athena House, Athena Drive, Tachbrook Park, Warwick, Warwickshire, CV34 6RL

Thanks - interesting. I think it is just one plot not three, the one nearest the A10 bridge (the red lines on one of the photos). The pub has recently opened under new management. It's a lovely river - here I am under the flightpath to USAF Lakenheath a month ago...

This reminds me of the advice that Google maps used to give (ca 15 years ago) if you wanted to walk from (say) Chicago to London. All would go well until you got to the step that said "Swim the Atlantic Ocean". Sadly this seems to have been withdrawn, no doubt for legal reasons.

Yes, see some of the comments above made on Christmas Day ....

I'm sure I heard a reference to Kent!

There were some nice shots of this bridge over the Swale in this week's episodes of Silent Witness. You could clearly see the railway tracks. There was one shot I think of the bridge in the raised position.

That was fun (though the first few minutes were repeated). I don't remember the gantry over the sheepwash channel, that was presumably to carry rods and wires for the signals and points? What a lot of gongoozlers at Watford and Foxton....