The Charity Commission has launched a fresh inquiry into an Orthodox girls’ seminary in Manchester over concerns about its administration.

The Jewish Seminary for Girls had previously been one of a large number of charities investigated by the charity watchdog for delays in filing annual accounts.

But the commission announced this week that after scrutinising the seminary’s accounts and other information, it had serious concerns whether they presented “an accurate picture of the charity’s financial activities”.

Michael Royde, the charity’s representative, said that he did not want to comment.

In the previous inquiry, the seminary explained that it had missed the commission’s warning about filing accounts because it had changed its postal address.

But the commission commented in its report earlier this year that this did “not excuse the failure of the trustees to fulfil their statutory obligations, as trustees have a duty to keep the charity’s records on the register up to date”.
According to its last filed accounts for the year ending July 2014, the Jewish Seminary had an income of £214,490 and spent £121,629.

Its most recent accounts, for July 2015, are two months overdue, according to the commission; its accounts for 2014 were submitted to the commission nearly six months late, those for 2013 around a year and a half late, while those for 2012 and 2011 nearly a year late.

In the period of £2014-16, more than a dozen strictly Orthodox charities have been the subject of commission inquiries, mainly owing to the late filing of accounts.