Arts Council adds new gagging clause to NPO contracts
Arts organisations and those connected to them must be sure not to do
anything that could damage ACE’s reputation as a Government sponsored
body, else their grants could be at risk.
Arts Council England (ACE) is inserting a new clause into its National
Portfolio Organisation (NPO) grant contracts for 2015-18 to deter any
individual involved with those organisations in any capacity from doing
anything that ACE considers might damage its reputation. Under the new
draft contract, from 2015 ACE will be able to “impose additional terms
and conditions” on an NPO if it judges that the organisation’s staff,
trustees, volunteers or anyone else “closely involved” with it may be
acting so as to have a “detrimental effect… on its [ACE’s] reputation as
a distributor of public money or as a Government sponsored body”. Under
the 2012-15 NPO contracts, ACE could withhold or demand repayment of all
or part of an organisation’s grant if it acted in a way that was likely
to harm ACE’s reputation, and this clause remains in the new contract,
but the much broader scope of the new clause has raised serious concerns
across the sector.
Potentially the new clause could not only prevent anyone connected with
an NPO from speaking publicly about ACE decisions or policies, but it
could also give the funding body the power to withdraw from arts
activities that it initially agrees to fund, but which it subsequently
judges to be too politically or socially sensitive. Simon Hughes MP,
Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties, told AP: “I think
this clause is too extreme. I understand that ACE want to discourage
organisations from public criticism but this wording is drafted also to
control individuals and curb their fundamental freedom of speech. I
would urge funded organisations to think carefully before signing up to
this restriction of activity for their staff, governing bodies and
volunteers.”
more…
http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/arts-council-adds-new-gagging-clause-npo-contracts
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