Charity Commission nominee says Kids Company collapse wasn’t ‘as bad as it seemed’

The digital, culture, media and sport committee has today questioned Orlando Fraser, the government’s preferred candidate for Chair of the Charity Commission.

The Charity Commission has been without a permanent chair for more than a year, with Ian Karet serving as interim chair since early 2020.

Fraser claimed he applied for the position “because in essence the Commission is an organisation that I hugely admire and I think it’s doing an incredibly important job.”

When quizzed over his qualifications for the role, he said his experience as a QC and extensive involvement in the voluntary sector meant he had “the right overall mix of abilities and experience to do that job”.

Between 2013 and 2017 Fraser served as one of the Commission’s two legal board members.

When asked whether the infamous Kids Company collapse occurred during his time at the Charity Commission, he admitted that it had-in 2015- but argued that “it wasn’t nearly as bad as it seemed”. He stressed that a judicial review found no evidence that there had been safeguarding concerns in the charity’s work with young people.