British charities still failing to report sexual misconduct

BRITISH charities have systematically failed to flag up cases of sexual harassment and abuse, with less than 1 per cent reporting a safeguarding incident in the last four years, a watchdog said on Wednesday.

The aid industry came under scrutiny earlier this year, when revelations that Oxfam staff used prostitutes in Haiti during an earthquake relief mission in 2010 snowballed into widespread reports of sexual misconduct in the sector.

Britain’s Charity Commission said it had since received more than 2,100 reports of serious cases, a 33 per cent increase on the whole of the previous year but believed many were still going unreported.

“The public rightly expect charities to demonstrate the highest standards of ethical behaviour and attitude. That includes taking action when something has gone badly wrong,” said policy director Sarah Atkinson in a statement.

“Making a serious incident report to the commission is not in itself an admission of wrongdoing or failure. Quite the reverse: it demonstrates that a charity is responding properly to incident or concern.”

Only 1,511 of about 167,000 registered charities in Britain had reported a serious incident in the past four years, the watchdog said.

An August survey found aid agencies expected reports of sexual misconduct to rise as they cracked down on staff offences and improved safeguarding mechanisms in the wake of the Oxfam scandal.

An earlier poll had found more than 120 staff from 21 leading global charities were fired or lost their jobs in 2017 over sexual misconduct. Bond, an umbrella group of international development organisations, said the increase in reports in recent months showed charities were taking the issue seriously.

“Today’s report shows that NGOs are getting it right: people feel more confident and comfortable coming forward,” Judith Brodie, the group’s interim head said in a statement.