Leader Responsibilities

Trustee Declaration

Responsibilities as a Trustee in accordance with Charity Commission guidance ‘The essential trustee (CC3)

Legal duty to:

Act in your charity’s best interests

• Do what you and your co-trustees (and no one else) decide will best enable the charity to carry out its purposes
  

• With your co-trustees, make balanced and adequately informed decisions, thinking about the long term as well as the short term
  

• Avoid putting yourself in a position where your duty to your charity conflicts with your personal interests or loyalty to any other person or body
  

• Not receive any benefit from the charity unless it is properly authorised and is clearly in the charity’s interests; this also includes anyone who is financially connected to you, such as a partner, dependent child or business partner
  

Manage your charity’s resources responsibly

• Make sure the charity’s assets are only used to support or carry out its purposes
  

• Avoid exposing the charity’s assets, beneficiaries or reputation to undue risk
  

• Not over-commit the charity
  

• Take special care when investing or borrowing
  

• Comply with any restrictions on spending funds or selling land

Manage risks

• Put appropriate procedures and safeguards in place and take reasonable steps to ensure that these are followed. Otherwise you risk making the charity vulnerable to fraud or theft, or other kinds of abuse, and being in breach of your duty.

Act with reasonable care and skill

• Must use reasonable care and skill, making use of your skills and experience and taking appropriate advice when necessary
  

• Should give enough time, thought and energy to your role, for example by preparing for, attending and actively participating in all trustees’ meetings

Ensure your charity is accountable

• Be able to demonstrate that your charity is complying with the law, well run and effective
  

• Ensure appropriate accountability to members, if your charity has a membership separate from the trustees
  

• Ensure accountability within the charity, particularly where you delegate responsibility for particular tasks or decisions to staff or volunteers

Essential to

• Deal with conflicts of interest
  

• Implement appropriate financial controls
  

• Manage risks
  

• Take appropriate advice when you need to, for example when buying or selling land, or investing (in some cases this is a legal requirement)

Summaries of Trustee's responsibilities

You must not act as a trustee if you are disqualified, unless authorised to do so by a waiver from the Commission. The reasons for disqualification are shown in the disqualifying reasons table and include:

• Being bankrupt (undischarged) or having an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA)
  

• Having an unspent conviction for certain offences (including any that involve dishonesty or deception)
  

• Being on the sex offenders’ register

Trustee Declaration

I declare that I am willing to act as a trustee, that I am not disqualified from acting as a charity trustee and that:

• I am aged 18 years or over at the date of this appointment.
  

• I am capable of managing and administering my own affairs.
  

• I do not have any unspent conviction relating to any offence involving deception or dishonesty.
  

• I am not an undischarged bankrupt nor subject to bankruptcy restrictions or an interim order, nor do I have an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) to pay off debts with creditors.
  

• I am not subject to a disqualification order under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 or to an Order made under section 429(b) of the Insolvency Act 1986.
  

• I am not subject to a disqualification Order under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000.
  

• I have not been removed from the office of trustee for a charity by an Order made by the Charity Commissioners or the High Court on grounds of any misconduct or mismanagement, nor am I subject to an Order under section under section 34(5)(e) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (or earlier legislation) preventing me from being concerned in the management or control of any relevant organisation or body.
  

• I undertake to fulfil my responsibilities and duties as a Trustee in good faith and in accordance with the law and within the objectives and mission.
  

• I am willing to comply with my responsibilities as a trustee (as set out in the Charity Commission guidance ‘The essential trustee (CC3)’).

The Key Rules

1. Abide by Regulations, Union Bye-laws and the Law, as breaches of these in the past have brought the Students’ Union into disrepute with the University, City Council and the Police.
   

2. Keep within your budget, if you exceed your budget you are likely to be disqualified from the process.
   

3. Any reports from individuals that they felt as though they were pressured to vote or support against their true intentions will be treated extremely seriously, you have to be particularly careful in this respect when people are using electronic devices to communicate on.
   

4. No campaigning of any kind should take place at or near the Election Help Desk, or any Union officials who are involved in handing out incentives or answering queries regarding the elections.

Sources:

Charity Commission, 2020. The essential trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do. London, UK: Charity Commission.