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One of the most respected scientific organisations in Britain, the Royal Institution, is under investigation by the Charity Commission after it was alleged that it is currently leasing office space to a business that is run without legal permission.

This is not the first time in the last few years that the Royal Institution has been in the news, as it attracted controversy just a month ago after making the director, Baroness Susan Greenfield, redundant.

Now, it has been found that the Institution is leasing deskspace at its central London base location to Ferranti Limited, a private equity firm, whose chief executive officer is also the chair of the Royal Institution, Adrian de Ferranti.

Since the Royal Institution is a charity, any leases that are made to those in authority such as the chairman need to first be referred to the Charity Commission according to the 1993 Charities Act.

A spokeswoman for the Commission stated that the Ferranti lease did not have prior approval and stated that the Royal Institution has been asked to provide more detailed records of the arrangement.

Chief Executive of the Institution, Chris Rofe, stated that it has leased the property to Ferranti since December of 2009, but did not request permission when the tenancy was first granted and is now in the process of clarifying what they need to do in order to be in complete compliance with the law.

He also stated that he cannot remember if the Royal Institution had informed the company of the lease beforehand or made an effort to do so.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 8:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.