Confidentiality and privacy

Charity Commission/ICSA review project

Review project confidentiality rule

All information you give the reviewer is subject to the project’s confidentiality rule.

The only information provided to and by your charity seen by other people will be anonymised information from the project review report, when:

  • it is provided to other reviewers and the chair of reviewers involved in this project – they will have undertaken to observe the project’s confidentiality rule;
  • it is handled by a limited number of staff at ICSA if they are providing some administrative support to the reviewers and chair of reviewers – they will be subject to ICSA’s confidentiality guidance.

The reviewer’s report to the charity will not be supplied to the Commission.

What is the project’s confidentiality rule?

The chair and any reviewer will keep secret and not disclose to any person or organisation any confidential information[1] obtained by him/her by reason of the project, except information:

  • the reviewer is required by law to disclose, for example evidence of criminal activity;
  • the reviewer is obliged by his/her professional code of conduct to report to the body which regulates the profession, for example, any evidence of professional misconduct of another member;
  • the reviewer needs to use to defend him/herself, for example in relation to a criminal charge or a civil legal action brought against him/her;
  • these exceptions would apply in any other similar situation, and are not specific to the reviews of a review project.

In addition, the panel of reviewers will not identify the source of any issue they include in their report to the Commission.

Researcher conduct

The reviewer will carry out the governance review with all due diligence, care and skill in accordance with all applicable regulations and in accordance with appropriate standards to maintain confidential material.

The purpose of the research is to provide thematic insights into the challenges newly registered charities face in terms of governance arrangements, regulatory compliance and sources of external guidance.

The information provided by the participating charity for this purpose will not be used for any other research or purpose.

Data use and storage

All data and information derived from the board observation, desktop research and face-to-face interviews, that may constitute personal information, will be subject to the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, where appropriate.

As part of the research, ICSA requires a board pack to be sent to the reviewer ahead of the board meeting. This will enable the reviewer to form an insight into the nature of board discussions to be expected at the board meeting. With the agreement of the charity, that board pack will either be left with the charity secretary (or other agreed person) at the end of the meeting to destroy in accordance with that charity’s guidelines, or retained by the reviewerand securely shredded at the end of the review project (December 2012).

Anonymity

Data and anecdotal evidence, collated from each individual reviewer, and used in the final report of the reviewer’s panel will be suitably presented to preserve the anonymity of individual contributors and participating charities.

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[1]The words ‘confidential information’ mean all information to which a reviewer or chair of reviewers has access as a consequence of the project and which otherwise is not in the public domain nor intended to be placed in the public domain. This includes information, which relates to the business, affairs, developments, trade secrets, know-how, personnel, customers and suppliers of a reviewed charity and/or any information, which may be reasonable regarded as the confidential information of the disclosing party or by the party entitled to the possession of that information.