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Charity regulator appointments
13/06/2008
Minister for Community Safety Fergus Ewing today announced the appointment of three new members to the Board of the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).
Ministers have also appointed current Board member Lindsay Montgomery to the position of Deputy Chair, following the resignation of Frank Kirwan.
Welcoming the new Board members, Mr Ewing said:
"I'm pleased to appoint Fiona Ballantyne, David Hughes Hallett and Oscar Mendoza to the Board of OSCR. These appointments will help to strengthen the Board as it faces important challenges and continues to drive forward the objective of building public confidence through effective, fair and proportionate regulation of charities in Scotland.
"I am also pleased to appoint Lindsay Montgomery to the position of Deputy Chair of the OSCR Board. I would like to express my thanks to Frank Kirwan for the role he has played as the first Deputy Chair of the Board, helping to guide OSCR through its first two years of operation."
Since its establishment, the OSCR Board has had to work with fewer than 6 members on a number of occasions, due to absences and conflict of interest procedures. This has caused difficulties for the corporate decision-making process.
The workload of the Board has also been significantly higher than anticipated, placing additional burden on the serving members. Ministers have decided to increase the Board membership to 8 to strengthen the Board, enhance its decision-making processes and spread the workload.
The new members are:
Fiona Ballantyne - Managing Director of Ballantyne Mackay Consultants and a Director of 4-consulting Ltd. She has served as Vice-Chair on the BBC Broadcasting Council for Scotland, Duncan Jordanstone College of Art and Queen Margaret University, as well as serving on the board of Edinburgh Healthcare Trust. She is a director of Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop Ltd, Chair of the Board of Museums Galleries Scotland (formerly the Scottish Museums Council) and was also Chair of the Edinburgh Branch of the Institute of Directors and a member of the IOD Scotland Committee. She has been appointed by OFCOM to be a member of its Consumer Panel; this appointment was subject to the approval of UK Government Ministers and attracts remuneration of £12,600 pa.
David Hughes Hallett - a Chartered Surveyor and Consultant, principally working in rural land, heritage and the voluntary sector. This includes assessment, monitoring and mentoring of projects, and mediation for dispute resolution. He has acted as an adviser to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the last 7 years, been Chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland and Convenor of the Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations. He has previously been a Board member of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and is currently a member of the North East Panel of Waterwatch Scotland, a Local Adviser for Scottish Natural Heritage (Forth and Borders Area) and a Director of Fife Environment Trust. He is Deputy Convener of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, appointed to the Authority by Scottish Ministers, for which he receives remuneration of £18,478 pa.
Oscar Mendoza - a Social Scientist with post graduate qualifications in Social Research Methods who works as Assistant Director of Operations for the Big Lottery Fund, where his remit includes planning, resourcing, budgeting, performance management and internal communications. Formerly, he managed the overseas projects section of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF), and has been a Board member of VETAID UK and Management Committee member of the Scottish Churches World Exchange. He has worked extensively with charities focussed on human rights in Chile and Central America, acting as General Council member for the Chile Committee for Human Rights and treasurer for Central America Network Scotland and Chile Democratico (Scotland). He does not hold any other Ministerial appointments.
These appointments will be for 4 years and will run from 9 June 2008 to 8 June 2012.
These posts are part-time and attract remuneration of £200 per day for a time commitment of 1.5 days per month.
These Ministerial public appointments were made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland's Code of Practice.
All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees' political activity (if there is any to be declared) to be made public. Mr Hughes Hallett has declared that he stood as a list candidate for the Scottish Liberal Democrat party in the elections to the European Parliament in 1999. Both Mrs Ballantyne and Mr Mendoza declared no political activity.
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is an operationally independent regulator, set up as a body corporate by the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. The Act established OSCR as a Non-Ministerial Department (NMD), the Registrar and Regulator for charities in Scotland. The Act sets out OSCR's main functions and makes provision about the appointment of a Board.
The current Board of OSCR was appointed by Ministers on 1 March 2006 for a four year fixed term appointment. The Board is chaired by John Naylor. Until his resignation on 11 May, Frank Kirwan was Deputy Chair. Ministers have decided to appoint existing member Lindsay Montgomery as the new Deputy Chair for the remaining term of appointment. The other members of the OSCR Board are: Martin Crewe, Annie Gunner and Iris McMillan.