Watchdog chief in private school ‘hypocrisy’ row
THE fat cat boss of a charities watchdog accused of a ‘vendetta’ against private education sent his own daughters to a fee-paying school.
David robb, who earns a salary of up to £85,000 and has a pension pot worth £434,000, heads the office of the Scottish Charity regulator (oSCr).
it aims to ‘help the public to have more confidence in charities’ but also ensures that private schools are offering enough ‘public benefit’ to qualify for charitable status, enabling them to get tax relief.
oSCr has faced criticism for allegedly waging a ‘vendetta’ against the private sector, which supporters of fee-paying schools insist offers public benefit by reducing pressure on overcrowded state schools.
But the Mail can reveal Mr robb, 52, educated his daughters Eilidh, 22, and Emma, 19, at the exclusive george Heriot’s School in Edinburgh.
The school was judged to have met the public benefit test in 2007, before Mr robb took the helm as oSCr chief executive in 2011.
Last night, Scottish Tory equalities spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘There is a clear hypocrisy there and it’s one that has to be challenged.’
The oSCr is charged with ensuring charities’ entitlement to tax relief can be justified and any which fall foul of the rules can be denied charitable status – with potentially devastating consequences.
it was launched in 2006 and it emerged in 2007 that a third of the organisations on the list of charities it was reviewing that year were independent schools, prompting the Tories to warn of a ‘vendetta’.
Some Left-wing MSPs originally saw oSCr as a vehicle for stripping private schools of charitable status, including Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop, who has previously spoken out against private schools qualifying for tax relief.
There was also concern last night over whether oSCr can fulfil its aim of boosting public confidence in charities when there are questions over the remuneration of its bosses.
it has failed to crack down on executive pay within the charity sector, despite a mounting public outcry over sky-high wages for ‘third sector’ bosses.
But its accounts show that career civil servant Mr robb’s salary rose from £75,000-£80,000 in 2013-14, to £85,000 in 201415, and remained the same in 2015-16. The overall value of his pension pot rose from £382,000 to £434,000 between 2014-15 and 2015-16.
His four colleagues in the senior management team earn combined basic salaries of up to £240,000.
An oSCr spokesman said: ‘All pay awards at oSCr are in line with the standard Scottish government pay grades.’
The spokesman said Mr robb ‘made a declaration during his appointment’ about his daughters’ private education and this was entered in the Senior Civil Service register of interest.
Meanwhile the Mail can also reveal that the boss of the umbrella body for Scotland’s charities privately educated his children – despite calling for fee-paying schools to be stripped of tax relief.
Martin Sime leads the Scottish Council for Voluntary organisations (SCVo), the representative body for charities and voluntary bodies.
it has been one of the most vocal critics of charitable status for private schools. in 2012, Mr Sime said: ‘under no circumstances do private schools look to me like charities.’
But the 63-year-old, who earns up to £80,000 a year as chief executive of SCVo, sent his children Helen, 20, and son Adam, 25, to george Watson’s College in Edinburgh. The £11,577-a-year school passed a ‘public benefit test’ set by oSCr to prove it was worthy of charitable status in 2014.
An SCVo spokesman said: ‘Whilst SCVo opposes the use of charitable status by private schools to reduce their tax burden, our chief executive will not be commenting on his private affairs.’