​Cabinet Office responds to Acevo after alleging Charity Commission chair was appointed "on the quiet"

Westminster’s Cabinet Office has written to the charity chief executives' group Acevo saying the appointment of William Shawcross as chair of the Charity Commission was above board and followed due process.

The Cabinet Office was responding to a letter sent last month from the body questioning whether the correct procedures for appointing the controversial chair had been followed by the commission.

Sir Jeremy Heywood, secretary of the cabinet and head of the civil service, responded to Acevo head Stephen Bubb saying that due process was followed.

Bubb had previously accused Shawcross’s appointment as being made “on the quiet.”

The letter says: "The reappointment of William Shawcross as chair of the Charity Commission was a decision taken by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude.

“Decisions on reappointment are matters for ministers and there is no requirement for a separate appointments committee or selection panel."

Shawcross’s tenure at the commission has come in for concerted criticism from a number of figures in England’s charity sector.

Andrew Hind, former chief executive of the Charity Commission, in a withering attack said Shawcross, was “an embarrassment for a public body previously respected across Whitehall for its competence.”