THE SNP’S ‘SOCK PUPPET’ CHARITIES
Taxpayer-funded ‘independent’ groups promoting a range of government policies
A WEB of links between government and supposedly independent charities can be exposed today.
By law, any group claiming privileged charity status must not allow itself to be directed by ministers.
But a Mail investigation has found a revolving door of appointments involving charities, civil servants and politicians.
Meanwhile, a coterie of groups is being handed taxpayers’ cash to bolster and even lobby for controversial policies.
The practice – known as ‘sock puppetry’ because the charities appear to be nothing more than government talking to itself – is set to be effectively outlawed in England, but not in Scotland.
Last night, the campaigning group Taxpayer Scotland led calls for reform.
Director Eben Wilson said: ‘There are too many cosy relationships between government and social policy lobbyists. Taxpayers need to see far stronger rules separating those in receipt of our taxes and those deciding how they should be spent. A lid must be put on this honeypot.
‘By toeing the party line, sock-puppet charities often put a false veneer of popularity and respectability on contentious government policies.’
Here we outline some of the most striking examples of sock puppetry:
CLIMATE CHANGE
TRYING to halt global warming is one of the SNP’s keenly pursued ambitions.
But charitable umbrella group Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) is demanding ministers go further and faster in their campaign against carbon, campaigning for the SNP to introduce a Warm Homes Act that would force extra taxpayer investment to upgrade homes.
On the charity’s board since 2012 has been Teresa Bray, 55, a public supporter of the Yes campaign in the independence referendum and chief executive of charity Change works resources For Life, which provides energy efficiency advice and support to householders and local authorities. She earns up to £80,000 a year in this role.
In 2014-15, Change works got £4.3million of taxpayers’ cash and receives millions more from donors including the Scottish Government. That is dwarfed by funding for the non-charitable firm Change works set up with the Energy Saving Trust and Everwarm.
Warm works Scotland was created in 2015 to deliver the SNP’s £224million, seven-year Warmer Homes Scotland (WHS) programme. It provides insulation and efficient heating to households struggling with high energy bills – exactly what SCCS has been lobbying for.
On the Warm works board is Miss Bray and her finance director Graeme Farmer, an ex-Green Party election candidate in Edinburgh.
However, SCCS’s links to the Nationalist movement run deeper.
Two of Miss Bray’s colleagues at the charity – Gail Wilson and Chris Hegarty – were founder members of pro-independence group Third Sector Yes. Its campaign literature boasted of its members’ ability to lobby successfully.
A Change works spokesman said: ‘All funding from the Scottish Government is for services we deliver under contracts that have gone through open public procurement.’
‘VOLUNTEER DEVELOPMENT’
ANOTHER Third Sector Yes founder member is Eliot Stark, chief executive of STRIVE, or Volunteer Development East Lothian.
Some 88 per cent of STRIVE’S £801,000 income in 2014-15 came from the public purse, including £188,000 from the Scottish Government to cover ‘specific salary costs’.
In 2014-15, Mr Stark, 47, received a 10 per cent pay rise to a salary of £58,000, while his deputy Linda McNeill received a 17 per cent increase to £33,000. In 2014-15 and 2015-16 STRIVE took payments totalling £89,000 from the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and the Craigvinean Outdoor Centre Trust. Mr Stark is a director of both charities, which receive public or lottery funds.
He said: ‘STRIVE is a wholly inde- pendent charity with an independent board of trustees. STRIVE receives funding from a variety of sources. No funder has any influence on the charity’s direction.’
NAMED PERSONS
Mr Stark is also a member of the East Lothian Getting It right For Every Child [GIRFEC] group, the SNP’s project to redefine childhood around the policing of every youngster’s well-being that has given rise to the Named Person scheme.
It aims to assign every youngster a state guardian but key parts of the proposed scheme were declared unlawful by the Supreme Court.
Fortunately for them, ministers can call on charity sector cheerleaders for the initiative including Children In Scotland (CIS), which has former senior civil servant Jackie Brock as its chief executive.
She was the Scottish Government’s deputy director of learning and support until 2012, with responsibility for introducing the muchderided Curriculum for Excellence.
CIS claims to be ‘fully independent’ yet is ‘underpinned by the principles of GIRFEC’ and, most years, receives more than £1million of Scottish Government funding.
In 2014 Miss Brock, 54, was commissioned by the Scottish Government to write a report on child sexual abuse, which backed the Named Person scheme. She said: ‘A fundamental part of CIS’s purpose is to scrutinise all Scottish Government policymaking against our ambitions to improve children’s lives.’
£2.5M FROM TAXPAYER – £350 FROM DONATIONS
CIS’S links with the Scottish Government do not end with Miss Brock. In 2011, Jim Stephen took early retirement as head of the Scottish Government’s Children and Families Division – where he played a key role in helping introduce GIRFEC – then joined CIS as a policy officer.
His colleague, Lewis ritchie, is an SNP councillor in Edinburgh, while director Sheena Welsh represents the Nationalists on Angus Council.
Also on the board is Jane Devine, a former parliamentary researcher for former SNP Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill and former Children’s Minister Adam Ingram.
Mr Stephen, 61, is also vicechairman of relationships Scotland, which last financial year relied on ministers for £2.3million of its income of £2.48million, with only £354 coming from public donations.
Formerly known as Counselling and Family Mediation Scotland, the charity has transformed its outlook, backing the SNP’s drive to introduce gay marriage in 2014.
On the board are South Ayrshire Labour councillor Kirsty Darwent, ex-Fife Lib Dem councillor robin Waterston and SNP member May Chamberlain.
Mr Stephen said: ‘Allegations [of compromised independence] would be entirely without foundation.’
SOFT-TOUCH JUSTICE
SNP justice policy has featured a shift away from punishment to rehabilitation in the community.
Typifying the new approach is a pilot scheme involving the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and charity groups at Low Moss prison in Bishopbriggs, Dunbartonshire.
Even though victims frequently complain their needs are being ignored by the system and that crime is being seen to pay, ministers have given £250,000 to the scheme, which ‘helps short-term prisoners access housing, apply for jobs and increase their qualifications’.
The lead charity involved is Turning Point Scotland (TPS), which provides rehabilitation services but claims it also ‘seek[s] to influence social policy’.
Tony Cameron – senior TPS director until his retirement last year – took up his post straight after leaving the SPS, of which he was chief executive between 1999 and 2007.
The new chief executive of TPS is Neil richardson, who retired as deputy chief constable of Police Scotland last year after it emerged he had led a shadowy unit which spied on journalists’ sources.
A TPS spokesman said it is an independent charity but works ‘in partnership alongside a wide range
of agencies and organisations that share our values and goals’.
GOVERNMENT MOUTHPIECES
IN 2014, seven charity groups called for all benefits to become a matter for Holyrood. Those powers are set to be transferred to the Scottish parliament and the SNP has vowed not to follow the UK’s tough approach to getting people off benefits and into work.
Signatories included familiar names such as SCVO and TPS along with One Parent Families Scotland (which got Scottish Government funding of £563,794 in 2014-15), Edinburgh Cyrenians Trust (£293,000), Faith In Community (Scotland) (£226,000), Community Transport Association (£100,000) and Positive Action In Housing (£60,000).
SCVO chief executive Martin Sime claimed leaving the UK Government in charge of benefits was ‘a recipe for spreading misery, harassment and bullying’.
Edinburgh Cyrenians Trust (£2.49million of public cash in 201415) began life as a homeless charity but now offers drugs and alcohol counselling and recycling services.
Chief executive Ewan Aitken – who earns £70,000-£80,000 – recently criticised UK immigration policy.
Mr Aitken, 54, ex-labour leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, said: ‘No public body has any influence on our governance, our decisionmaking, our choice of activities or our public commentary.’
POLITICAL TWEETING
ANOTHER official who is disseminating overt political comment despite being employed by a taxpayer-funded charity is Caroline Weintz, communications manager of Paths For All. Set up by Scottish Natural Heritage in 1996, it received £1.61million of public money last year to encourage people to walk.
Mrs Weintz is an ex-labour council candidate in Argyll and Bute who switched to the SNP after 2007.
describing herself as an ‘opinionated... political activist’, she has tweeted that ‘SNP are the only party that have any semblance of real belief in social justice and a workable vision of how to deliver it’ and has accused the UK Government of ‘state racism’. On social media – where she readily identifies herself as a Paths For All official – she has claimed England is a more racist society than Scotland.
Paths For All chief officer Ian Findlay said: ‘Any social media posts through Mrs Weintz’s accounts have been made in her personal capacity.’
CIVIL SERVANTS RUNNING CHARITIES
SOME charities are even run by current Scottish Government civil servants.
The board of LGBT Health and Wellbeing – recipient of £231,000 of public money last financial year – is chaired by Trevor Owen.
In the charity’s annual report, he states ‘the Scottish Government has recognised the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community infrastructure is still relatively weak’ and that ‘ongoing underfunding of LGBT organisations still persists’.
Small wonder the Government’s Equality Unit – which handed £2.3million of public money to gay rights groups between 2012-2015 – agrees with Mr Owen because he joined it in 2015 as lead civil servant dealing with hate crime.
Edinburgh-based homelessness charity Four Square (Scotland) has received seven grants totalling £332,000 from the Scottish Government over the past decade.
Its chairman since 2010 has been david Blair, a senior housing ministry official till 2009 and now head of policy for looked-after children.
LGBT Health and Wellbeing failed to respond to requests for comment.
Mr Blair said: ‘My role within the Scottish Government is distinct from homelessness policy and funding. I have no decision-making role in the latter.
‘This funding covers one small activity of the charity and its loss would make no difference.’
CALLS FOR REFORM
THE UK Government has sought to clamp down on ‘sock-puppetry’.
Ministers announced they would stipulate that charities do not use grant aid for lobbying for more government money or regulation.
Cabinet Office minister Matthew Hancock said: ‘Taxpayers’ money must be spent on improving people’s lives and spreading opportunities, not wasted on the farce of government lobbying government.’
The policy was put on hold following an outcry from charities but is to be revived imminently, according to UK Government sources.
However, the SNP has refused to follow suit, ensuring the taxpayer will continue to pay charities to sustain Scottish Government policies.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Charities play an important role in highlighting issues and providing a voice on public policy.
‘We do not therefore agree with the UK Government restrictions on their activity and will not be doing so in Scotland.’