Former Kids Company directors face ban

Following an investigation into the collapse of Kids Company, the Insolvency Service said it wants the charity's former directors - including former BBC creative director Alan Yentob - disqualified from running or controlling companies for up to six years.

Although Camila Batmanghelidjh, Kids Company's founder and former chief executive, was not officially a director when the charity imploded, the Insolvency Service intends to argue in court that she was a de facto director and should also be disqualified.

The other former directors of Keeping Kids Company, as it was renamed during its collapse, the government is seeking to ban from directorships are: Sunetra Devi Atkinson; Erica Jane Bolton; Richard Gordon Handover; Vincent Gerald O'Brien; Francesca Mary Robinson; Jane Tyler; and Andrew Webster.

An Insolvency Service spokesman said: "We can confirm that the Insolvency Service has written to the former directors of Keeping Kids Company informing them that the Business Secretary intends to bring proceedings to have them disqualified from running or controlling companies for periods of between two-and-a-half and six years.

"As this matter will now be tested in the court, it is not appropriate to comment further."

Kids Company was founded in 1996 to provide counselling and support to vulnerable children and young people. It closed in August 2015 amid financial problems.

Prior to its collapse, the charity claimed to be supporting 36,000 children - but a February 2016 report by Parliament's Public Administration Committee concluded that this figure was overinflated and misleading.

During its lifetime, the charity received around £46m from central government despite civil servants repeatedly raising concerns about its financial management.

At the time of the charity's collapse, Batmanghelidjh told CYP Now that claims of financial mismanagement at the charity were "absolute rubbish".