The charity
promotes animal conservation and has objects to promote
education in zoology and to conserve wild animals in
danger of extinction.
The regulator began examining the charity in July 2020
over concerns about the management of conflicts of
interest and related-party transactions.
It opened a regulatory compliance case and began
engaging with the trustees regarding these concerns in
November of last year, and the trustees have been fully
co-operating with the Commission. Since that time, the
regulator has identified further questions regarding
the charity’s governance, and it will now examine all
these issues as part of a formal statutory inquiry.
The inquiry will examine:
- the administration, governance and management of
the Charity by the trustees with specific regard to how
conflicts of interest have been dealt with and managed
- whether or not there has been any unauthorised
trustee benefit; and
- whether or not the trustees have complied with and
fulfilled their duties and responsibilities under
charity law
The regulator may extend the scope of the inquiry if
additional regulatory issues emerge.
The opening of an inquiry is not a finding of
wrongdoing.
It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded
an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues
the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as
part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were.
Reports of previous inquiries are available on
GOV.UK.
