McDOUGALL TRUST
(The Arthur McDougall Fund)
(Charity number: 212151)
ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS
FOR YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2002
Pages 1 - 9Pages 1 / 9 / Annual Report of Trustee Board
Administrative details
Page 10 / Report of the independent examiner
Page 11 / Statement of financial activities
Page 12 / Balance Sheet
Pages 13 - 21 / Notes 1 to 18 to the Accounts
Mei Sim Lai OBE DL FCA FCCA
LaiPeters & Co.
New Broad Street House
35 New Broad Street
London EC2M 1NH
21
McDOUGALL TRUST
(The Arthur McDougall Fund)
(Charity number: 212151)
ANNUAL REPORT OF TRUSTEE BOARD
in respect of YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2002
CONTENTS
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0 TRUSTEES, REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
3.0 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
4.0 OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
5.0 FINANCIAL REVIEW
6.0 TRUSTEES’ RESPONSIBILITIES IN RELATION TO ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 This is the Annual Report of the Trustee Board accompanying the Trust’s duly examined Accounts in respect of the financial year ended 30 September 2002 [“the 2002 accounting year”].
1.2 The Trustees have been unable to publish before now the Trust’s Accounts for the 2002 accounting year because of a sequence of difficulties in achieving completion of an independent examination for the 2000 accounting year. The lack of a completed examination of the 2000 accounts held up examination / audit of subsequent years. While taking successive steps to address the difficulties, the Trustees have at all times been conscious of their duty to publish duly examined / audited accounts for every year. From August 2001 (when publication of the Trust’s Accounts for 2000 became overdue) onwards, they maintained contact with the Charity Commission about the situation, and on certain matters obtained the Commission’s formal written advice.
1.3 This Annual Report provides (where appropriate in the light of relevant reporting requirements) information correct at the date of approval of the documents in May 2009 [“the approval date”], and reports on the position for the 2002 accounting year.
2.0 TRUSTEES, REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS
2.1 The following were Trustees at the approval date:
Elizabeth Bee / Michael MeadowcroftDavid Clover / Peter Morley
Elizabeth Collingridge / Nigel Siederer
Ruth Farmer / Michael Steed (Chair)
David Hill / Paul D Webb
2.2 For reference and administrative details as at the approval date, see Annex at end of this Report.
During the 2002 accounting year:
2.3 The following served as Trustees in the 2002 accounting year:
Elizabeth Collingridge / Lindsay MathiesonJoan D Davies / Michael Meadowcroft
Tom Ellis (Chair) / John Ward
David M Farrell
ANNUAL REPORT OF TRUSTEE BOARD
in respect of YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2002 (continued)
3.0 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
Legal status and governing documents
3.1 McDougall Trust was established as a charity in 1948. The Trust is constituted as an unincorporated association. ‘McDougall Trust’ is the working name of the charity, which is registered as ‘The Arthur McDougall Fund’. The Trust is governed by a Scheme issued by order of the High Court in 1959 as subsequently amended and supplemented in 1994 and 1999 by order of the Charity Commissioners and in 2003 and 2005 by resolutions of the Trustees approved by the Charity Commissioners [“the Scheme”]; by relevant legislation including the Trustee Act 1925, the Charities Acts and associated regulations and guidance; and by Rules made by the Trustee Board.
3.2 Under the Scheme, the Trustees are authorised to make and hold investments using permanent endowment funds and general funds; they are prevented from expending any of the capital contained in the permanent endowment. The Trustee Board has appointed investment managers to exercise discretionary management of the investment portfolio according to policy instructions issued by the Trustees.
Trustee Board
3.3 Under the Scheme, the Trustees consist of such persons, being not more than ten and not less than five, as shall have been duly appointed and from whom the Trust shall have received their acknowledgement of their acceptance of office in accordance with the Scheme.
3.4 Trustees are appointed in their individual personal capacity, not as delegates or representatives of any other person or organisation. They carry personally the responsibilities and liabilities of trustee with the duty to act independently and in the best interests of the Trust. They are required to declare to the Trustee Board any other interest in a particular matter which gives or might give rise to a conflict of interests and, when appropriate, to remove themselves from discussions and/or to abstain from voting on such matters: this does not however absolve them from joint liability for decisions made.
3.5 One third (or the number nearest to one third) of the Trustees fall due for retirement as trustees every two years, the trustees to retire being those who have served longest since they were last appointed. Provisions incorporating greater specificity for trustee retirements by rotation are contained in the Scheme as amended in 2005.
Recruitment, selection and appointment of trustees
3.6 Responsibilities of the Trustee Board for review of trustee needs, and for recruitment and selection of trustees as appropriate, are included in Rules originally approved by the Board in 2000. Under the Scheme as amended in 2005, the Trustees are required to hold a Trustee Appointment Meeting within each alternate calendar year, and may hold an additional Special Trustee Appointment Meeting following their receipt of notification of the arising of a casual vacancy or at any other time.
ANNUAL REPORT OF TRUSTEE BOARD
in respect of YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2002 (continued)
3.0 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT (continued)
Recruitment, selection and appointment of trustees (continued)
3.7 The Trustee Board is responsible for keeping under review the duties and tasks required of trustees, and their needs for induction, training and development, in the light of the objectives, activities and priorities they decide to set for the effective operation of the charity. In determining the number of trustees to be appointed and the individuals to recommend for appointment as trustees, the Trustee Board must have regard to the mix of perspectives, experience, knowledge, expertise, skills and other attributes needed within the trustee group, including identifying when appropriate the needs for new or additional trustees.
3.8 The Trustee Board is responsible for undertaking, when appropriate, a trustee recruitment process, advertising as widely as reasonably possible, inviting written expressions of interest and then undertaking appropriate selection procedures, having regard to equal opportunities principles. Notices of a trustee recruitment exercise are publicly advertised and circulated to relevant organisations.
3.9 Under the Scheme, the function of a Trustee Appointment Meeting and a Special Trustee Appointment Meeting of the Trustees is, for so long as the Scheme authorises appointments of trustees to be made by resolution of the governing body of the Electoral Reform Society [“the Society”], to consider and to authorise the Trustees’ recommendation to be made to such governing body in respect of appointments as trustee. After such a Trustee Appointment Meeting, the Board sends to the Council of the Society its formal recommendation as to the persons to be (as appropriate) appointed or re-appointed as trustees. The appointments are made by resolution of the Council (see further below under ‘Relationships with related parties’).
3.10 Under the Scheme, trustees take up their appointments after the Trust has received their express acknowledgement, by signature on a declaration and in whatever further ways the Trustees may decide, of their acceptance of the office and duties of trustee of the charity.
Governance and Management
3.11 The Trust is governed and managed by the Trustee Board, which normally holds some four or five formal meetings per year. The Trustee Board is responsible for developing the Trust’s strategic vision and related development and operational plans. The work which the Trust undertakes direct is carried out through various sub-committees, including the Finance and General Purposes Committee and the Editorial Board of the Trust’s journal Representation; through individual trustees responsible for particular aspects; and through the Trust’s Executive Secretary. The Trust also pursues its purposes through financial support for charitable work within its objects carried out by other individuals or bodies.
3.12 The major risks to which the charity is exposed, as identified by the Trustees, have been reviewed and procedures established to manage those risks. The Trustees undertook a review of major risks in May 2008, and the Trustee Board keeps such risks under ongoing review.
ANNUAL REPORT OF TRUSTEE BOARD
in respect of YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2002 (continued)
3.0 STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT (continued)
Relationships with related parties
3.13 As stated above, the Trustees’ recommendation as to the persons to be appointed as trustees of the Trust is made to the Council (being the board of directors) of the Electoral Reform Society. The Society is a not-for-profit voluntary organisation incorporated as a company limited by guarantee whose Memorandum of Association includes certain main and subsidiary objects which are charitable and which are consonant with the charitable purposes of the Trust and powers of the Trustees. The members of the Council of the Electoral Reform Society are subject to election every two years by the members of the Society. Under the Trust’s governing High Court Scheme issued in 1959, trustee appointments are made by resolution of the governing body of the Society. (See further above under ‘Recruitment, selection and appointment of trustees’.)
3.14 At the approval date, one trustee in office is also a member of the Council of the Electoral Reform Society: Michael Meadowcroft. Trustee Elizabeth Bee is married to trustee Michael Meadowcroft.
3.15 The Trustee Board governs and manages the Trust wholly independently of the Electoral Reform Society and/or any other institution. Where the Trust considers or engages in co-operative activities with another organisation, the Board ensures that these are pursued in a manner which is in the best interests of the Trust, including as appropriate the observance of due declarations of interest.
During the 2002 accounting year:
3.16 Two trustees in office throughout the year were also members of the Council of the Electoral Reform Society throughout the year: Joan Davies and Michael Meadowcroft.
3.17 The Trust received an unrestricted and unconditional gift-aid donation during the year from the Electoral Reform Society’s ballot services subsidiary, Electoral Reform (Ballot Services) Ltd.
3.18 The Trust continued throughout the year to occupy premises for which an annual contribution towards costs, together with re-imbursement for uses of certain office facilities, were payable to the Electoral Reform Society.
3.19 Under arrangements originally made in 1991, the Trust’s Executive Secretary, formally an employee of the Electoral Reform Society, continued throughout the year on full-time secondment from the Society, the Trust being wholly responsible for all staff management. These arrangements enabled the protection of appropriate statutory and contractual rights relating to employment. Charges in respect of this secondment, which were equal to the employer’s salary, national insurance and pension costs incurred, were payable to the Electoral Reform Society (which administered PAYE).
3.20 The Trust gave financial support towards a range of charitable activities carried out by the Electoral Reform Society. The Trust paid a grant (equivalent to the bulk subscription received from the Electoral Reform Society) towards the Society’s costs in disseminating a complete Volume of the Trust’s journal Representation to a much wider target audience than the Trust alone could reach direct, the Society bearing in addition the packing and postage costs. The Trust also made a grant to the Electoral Reform Society towards a programme of other charitable activities within the Trust’s objects. (See also below under ‘Objectives, Activities and Achievements’.)
ANNUAL REPORT OF TRUSTEE BOARD
in respect of YEAR ENDED 30 SEPTEMBER 2002 (continued)
4.0 OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
4.1 The principal objects of the McDougall Trust are, in summary, to advance knowledge of and research into representative democracy, its forms, functions and development and associated institutions. Under the Scheme, the Trustees “shall pursue such charitable purposes as shall advance knowledge of and encourage the study of and research:
a in political or economic science and functions of government and the services provided to the community by public and voluntary organisations;
b into methods of election of and the selection and government of representative organisations whether national, civic, commercial, industrial or social”.
4.2 The Trust is a small organisation with volunteer trustees and one paid member of staff. It pursues its charitable purposes through:
o direct provision of various information services including maintenance and development of the Trust’s electoral studies library: research; and provision of publications, in particular its journal Representation;
o support for charitable activities within the Trust’s objects through the provision of financial support to other bodies or individuals.
In planning the Trust’s activities to carry out its aims for the public benefit, the Trustees have regard to current Charity Commission guidance on public benefit.
4.3 The Trust’s electoral studies library, the Lakeman Library, holds a unique stock of archives and books, as well as academic journals and up-to-date reference works and current affairs magazines. The Trust’s research and information service is available to individual and institutional enquirers from the UK and elsewhere, including personal visitors to the Library by prior arrangement. Following preliminary reviews, the Trustee Board is currently working on plans for the further development of the Trust’s library / archive, research, and information services.
4.4 The Trust’s widely respected quarterly journal, Representation - the journal of representative democracy, continues with the following aims:
o to publish cutting edge articles about the study of elections and voting systems throughout the world;
o to encourage debate on democratic practices around the world;
o to explore critically the interface between democratic practice and theory;
o to produce special issues devoted to questions of democracy and representation whether they be in a single country or region, or across a wider subject such as representation of minorities;
o to attract an audience of academics and students, journalists, election practitioners and all those interested in the nature of representative democracy including informed lay readers.