Kids Company: MPs condemn 'catalogue of failures' which led to charity's collapse
MPs have condemned the "extraordinary catalogue of failures" which led to the collapse of the Kids Company charity in a damning report.
Kids Company, which supported deprived children in major UK cities, folded in August 2015 - days after it was handed a £3 million government grant in a last-ditch bid to keep it open.
The Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) has called for "radical change" in charity regulation to prevent a repeat.
The report comes just days after Scotland Yard dropped an investigation into reports of physical and sexual abuse linked to the failed charity.
Here's what we know.
No one spared in damning report
The charity, senior ministers, watchdogs and auditors are all heavily criticised.
Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin said there were failures of governance and control "at every level".
Yentob savaged
Alan Yentob, the BBC's former creative director, was singled out for particular criticism for his role.
The report accused him of painting an "inaccurate and alarming" picture of financial troubles at the troubled charity, where he was chair of trustees.
MPs also said he failed in his duty to safeguard its work with vulnerable young people.
His alleged interventions over negative media reports were "unwise at best, and deliberately intimidating at worst", the report said.
"The evidence Mr Yentob gave to the committee suggests a lack of proper attention to his duties as chair of trustees and a continuing inability to recognise those failures.
The report also criticised the BBC itself for being too slow to address potential conflicts of interest.
The broadcaster denied the claim, insisting its coverage was "impartial" and it had "led the way" in reporting the story.
£42 million from the government
The charity received more than £42 million of government funding between 1996 and 2015, thanks in some part to its founder Camila Batmanghelidjh gaining "unique, privileged and significant access to senior ministers and prime minsters".
The report said it was "unacceptable" that ministers released funds "on the basis of little more than their relationship with a charismatic leader, small-scale studies and anecdotes, and no more than two visits made by Mr Letwin [Oliver Letwin, Conservative Cabinet office minister] more than 10 years previously".
Letwin defends grant decision
Conservative minister Oliver Letwin, who granted £3 million to Kids Company before it collapsed despite opposition from civil service officials, said he stood by his decision to give the charity "one last chance".
Stricter controls needed
MPs have called for statutory regulation of charities with safeguarding responsibilities for children or vulnerable adults by an independent watchdog such as Ofsted or the Care Quality Commission.
Their report also calls for much stricter controls on "unorthodox" payments to favoured causes by ministers, including a ban on handing cash to charities under investigation and removing responsibility from the Cabinet Office.
It also said the Charity Commission needed to do far more to encourage people to report suspicions about mismanagement and be given extra resources and powers to launch earlier investigations.
Ex-Kids Company trustees hit back
The committee was accused by the charity's former trustees of hiding behind parliamentary privilegeto present an "inaccurate, unbalanced and irresponsible" account.
They also said MPs had "naively accepted allegations made in the media and by a small number of individuals, some with vested interests in damaging Kids Company".