The Trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2024.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the Charity's trust deed, Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)”.
The Pebble Trust operates as a grant-giving charity, providing funds for such charitable objects, activities or institutions as the Trustees think fit.
The Trustees do their own research to select potential beneficiaries outside Brighton & Hove. They do not therefore invite or consider incoming applications other than from charities, other charitable organisations or potential Talent Grant recipients in Brighton & Hove. Applications from Brighton & Hove should be made as set out on the Pebble Trust’s website: www.pebbletrust.org.
We aim to support charities and charitable organisations with a compelling, value-for-money approach to a societal problem or challenge. We like to see that approach delivered with dedication, professionalism, efficiency and integrity. The organisations we support will often leverage the time and enthusiasm of volunteers and will usually have clear metrics to demonstrate the effectiveness of their approach. We run three application rounds each year and select based on our funding capacity from year to year and on the quality of the applications received.
We also support children and young people in the city through our Talent Grants scheme. This has deliberately broad and inclusive criteria, to allow us to support a range of talents and to factor in the unique circumstances of each applicant.
We also support charities and charitable organisations outside the city. Where we do so, it is usually with an environmental focus. Our environmental causes are across the following areas: marine conservation / restoration, terrestrial conservation / restoration, net zero, biodiversity conservation / restoration, communications and resilience/adaptation. We fund at local, national and international levels (all UK-based).
We do not set our own specific criteria to measure success, instead preferring to rely on those we fund to define their own criteria. We seek to avoid creating unnecessary work for those we fund. We also seek to minimise our own costs. We recognise that the diversity of recipients of our funding renders futile any attempt to create harmonised metrics of our own, so we rely on regular updates and information accompanying each new application to assess whether we are getting what we consider to be a good “philanthropic return”.
The principal sources of funding are donations to the charity made by James and Louise Arnell or entities that they control.
Port Flyer Limited, a company controlled by James and Louise Arnell, made a donation of £1m to the charity in the year ended 31 March 2024 (2023 - £nil). It is expected that, in future, some causes which were directly funded by James and/or Louise will be funded by the Pebble Trust and that the Pebble Trust will receive funding from James and Louise Arnell, their children and Port Flyer Limited.
Review of activities
The Trustees awarded and paid grants during the year totalling £449,521 (2023 - £291,993) in accordance with the Charity's grant making policy. A detailed list of all grants made in the year is included in Note 6 on pages 14 and 15.
In the year ended 31 March 2022, the Trustees entered into a five year agreement with the Sussex Wildlife Trust, pledging a £50,000 donation each year to help support the Sussex Kelp Restoration Project. The third of these annual donations was made in the current year.
In the year ended 31 March 2022, the Trustees entered into a three year agreement with the Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, pledging a £125,000 donation each year. The third of these annual donations was made in the current year.
Continuing the talent grants scheme, the Trustees provided approximately 70 grants of up to £500 to local teenagers to help develop their talents in sport, music, the performing arts and academia.
The Trustees have continued their support of local organisations working with disadvantaged people in the city of Brighton and Hove.
Public Benefit
The Trustees confirm that they have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit when reviewing the Trust's aims and objectives and in planning future activities and settling the grant making policy for the period.
The Trust carries out its objectives by providing grants to institutions that are also UK registered charities and UK registered organisations for charitable purposes and whose objects comply with the Trust's criteria. Whilst the Trustees are mindful of their own obligation to ensure that the Trust benefits the public generally - and they discharge this obligation by seeking information from the organisations they support - they do factor in the fact that recipients of grants are themselves regulated to operate for the public benefit and therefore the Trustees take a pragmatic approach to reporting, as noted above.
Potential recipients of grants are identified by the Trustees individually or through application rounds, and public benefit is a key selection criterion. The opportunity to benefit is not restricted in any way except that grants are restricted to bodies registered in the UK. In practice, the charity considers applications from a broad range of organisations within Brighton and Hove, but gives grants only on a selective, proactive basis – based on its own research and priorities – outside the city. It does not invite applications from outside the city.
Finally, the Trust does give small talent grants to young people in the city. Applications for these grants need the support of a responsible unrelated person (for example, a teacher) and are usually administered by schools or other competent organisations, to ensure that the funds are applied as per the grant application.
The Trustees therefore consider that the Trust's activities are for the benefit of the public generally.
During the year ended 31 March 2024, total incoming resources amounted to £1,612,006 (2023 - £220,694) being income arising from donations, gift aid, bank interest and investment income (2023 being donations, gift aid and gift aid interest).
The Trustees' charitable activities of promoting and enhancing charitable work amounted to £462,169 (2023 - £301,089). Governance costs including within charitable activities amounted to £12,649 (2023 - £9,096).
The net incoming resources were £1,149,837 (2023 - net outgoing resources £80,395).
All Funds are unrestricted.
Financial position
The statement of financial activities shows total unrestricted funds of £
Reserves Policy
The unrestricted fund represents the funds received by the Charity on its creation, adjusted for net movements since that date. The Trustees have the power to meet administrative expenses from this fund and may apply the income towards the general purposes of the Charity.
The Charity is operated as a grant giving charity, and the Trustees' policy is to administer the investment assets on an absolute return basis.
The Trustees will arrange further additions to the Charity to ensure the reserves are adequate and provide a stable basis for its continuing activities. These reserves are reviewed on a regular basis.
Investment policy and performance
Trust monies requiring investment under the Trust may be invested in the purchase of such stocks, funds, shares, securities or other investments of whatsoever nature as the Trustees shall in their absolute discretion think fit. The Trustees shall have the same full and unrestricted powers of investing and converting investments in all other respects as if they were absolutely entitled to the Trust Fund beneficially.
The Trustees will hold their cash on an interest bearing bank account where possible.
Risk management
In line with the requirement of Charity Trustees to undertake a risk assessment exercise the Trustees have identified three main areas where risks may occur:
Governance
Operational
Financial
Governance covers the continuity of trusteeship, the skills and background of the Trustees and the policy of regular meetings of the Trustees to review their aims and activities.
Operational risk covers the risk inherent in the delegation of statutory and legal requirements of the Charity, its management and secretarial functions and delegation of certain of those functions.
Financial risks include those inherent in delegation of the financial record keeping of the Charity, its independent examination or audit and review procedures.
Having assessed the major risks to which the Charity is exposed, in particular those relating to its finances, the Trustees believe that by ensuring controls exist over key financial systems incorporating the systems and controls implemented by New Quadrant Partners, subject to regular monitoring, they have established effective systems to mitigate those risks.
The risk management will be kept under regular review and is fully reassessed every three years.
Future plans
The Trustees will continue to support local organisations working with disadvantaged groups, in the arts, in environment and to provide talent grants to local young people.
The Pebble Trust was incorporated in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee on 3 April 2009 (Company Registration No 06869381). The Charity was registered as a Charity with the Charity Commission on 14 April 2009. It is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. The Charity is registered under the Charities Act 2011, Charity Registration Number 1129132.
Trustees
The names of the Trustees who served during the year are set out as part of the administrative information as set out below:
Appointment of Trustees
The statutory power of appointment of new trustees lies with the trustees themselves. Apart from the first trustees, every trustee must be appointed by a resolution of the trustees passed at a special meeting. The trustees will select individuals with the relevant knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the charity.
The new trustee is given upon appointment a copy of the Trust Deed and any amendments thereto and a copy of the charity's latest report and financial statements and are thoroughly briefed by their co-trustees on the history of the Trust, the day to day management, the responsibilities of the trustees, the current objectives and future plans.
Structure and management reporting
The Trustees are ultimately responsible for the policies, activities and assets of the Charity. They meet annually to review the developments with regard to the Charity, its grant giving activities and make any important decisions. When necessary, the Trustees seek advice and support from the Charity's professional advisors, including solicitors and accountants. The day to day management of the Charity's activities, and the implementation of policies, is dealt with by the Trustees themselves. New Quadrant Partners Limited ensure that the grant applications are presented to the Trustees as appropriate; the firm maintains the accounting records of the Charity.
At their meetings the Trustees review the proposals for grants to be made and approve such grants as appropriate.
As explained more fully in the statement of trustees’ responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the trust for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of financial statements which give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charity or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements
We have been appointed as auditor under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.
Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the Charity financial statements are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists.
Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures can detect irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
Our approach was as follows:
To identify risks of material misstatement due to irregularities we assessed events or conditions that could lead to irregularities. Our risk assessment procedures included:
enquiring of Trustees and management and inspection of policy documentation as to the Charity’s policies and procedures to prevent and detect irregularities, as well as whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected, or alleged fraud or breaches of relevant laws and regulations; and
using analytical procedures to identify any usual or unexpected relationships.
We identified areas of laws and regulations that could reasonably be expected to have a material effect on the financial statements from our general commercial and sector experience through discussion with the Trustees and management (as required by auditing standards). We communicated with the Trustees and management the policies and procedures in place regarding compliance with laws and regulations.
We identified the legal and regulatory frameworks that are applicable to the entity and determined that the most significant are those that relate to the Charities Act 2011, The Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and the Republic of Ireland (the SORP), the Data Protection Act, and relevant tax legislation.
In addition, we have considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial statements but compliance with which may be fundamental to the company’s ability to operate or to avoid a material penalty. We identified the following areas as those most likely to have such an effect: employment law, recognising the nature of the Charity’s activities and its legal form. Auditing standards limit the required audit procedures to identify non-compliance with these laws and regulations to enquiry of the Trustees and management and inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any. Therefore, if a breach of operational regulations is not disclosed to us or evident from relevant correspondence, an audit will cannot be relied upon to detect that breach.
We communicated identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all engagement team members and remained alert to any indications of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations throughout the audit.
Based on the results of our risk assessment we designed our audit procedures to identify non-compliance with such laws and regulations identified above and assessed the extent of compliance with these laws and regulations as part of our procedures on the related financial statement items.
The engagement partner considers the engagement team collectively had the appropriate competence and capabilities to identify or recognise non-compliance with laws and regulations.
As required by auditing standards and considering possible pressures to meet internal key performance indicators and our knowledge of the control environment, we perform procedures to address the risk of management override of controls and the risk of fraudulent revenue recognition, in particular the risk that income is recorded in the incorrect accounting period and the risk that management may be in a position to make inappropriate accounting entries.
We assessed the risks of material misstatement in respect of fraud as follows:
our audit team discussed whether there were any areas that were susceptible to misstatement as part of our discussion on fraud; and
we challenged assumptions and judgements made by management in their significant accounting estimates and judgements.
Based on the results of our risk assessment we designed our audit procedures to identify and to address material misstatements in relation to fraud, including, designing appropriate audit procedures, including:
incorporating an element of unpredictability in the selection of the nature, timing, and extent of our audit procedures;
identifying journal entries and other adjustments to test based on risk criteria and comparing the identified entries to supporting documentation;
inspecting the relevant income agreements and their accounting to confirm their recognition in line with the SORP for different revenue streams;
obtaining third party bank confirmations; and
assessing the design and effectiveness of controls in place over areas such as the appropriateness of beneficiaries and cash.
There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures described above and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we would become aware of it. Also, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery or intentional misrepresentation, or through collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the FRC’s website at:
https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The prior year financial statements are unaudited.
The Pebble Trust is a Public Benefit Entity and is incorporated as a company. The Company Registration number is. 06869381 and the registered address is 25 Bury Street, St James's, London SW1Y 6AL.
These accounts have been prepared in accordance with FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”), “Accounting and Reporting by Charities” the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities applying FRS 102, the Companies Act 2006 and UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice as it applies from 1 January 2019. The Charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.
The accounts are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The trustees have assessed whether the use of the going concern assumption is appropriate in preparing these financial statements. The trustees have made this assessment in respect of a period of one year from the date of the approval of these financial statements.
The trustees of the Charity have concluded that there are no material uncertainties related to events or conditions which may cast significant doubt on the ability of the Charity to continue as a going concern.
The trustees are of the opinion that the Charity will have sufficient resources to meet its liabilities as they fall due.
Income is recognised when the Charity is legally entitled to it after any performance conditions have been met, the amounts can be measured reliably, and it is probable that income will be received.
Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the Charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.
Interest is accounted for in the period in which the charity is entitled to receipt.
The cost of charitable activities are included in the statement of financial activities on an accrual basis, inclusive of VAT, which cannot be recovered.
Charitable costs comprise grants payable in promoting and enhancing charitable work carried out by other charitable organisations and the cost of administering the activities of the Charity. Grants payable are included in the statement of financial activities when approved and when the intended recipient has either received the funds or been informed of the decision to make the donation and has satisfied all related conditions. Grants approved but not paid at the end of the financial year are accrued. Grants where the beneficiary has not been informed or has to meet certain conditions before the grant is released are not accrued but are noted as financial commitments in the notes to the accounts.
Governance costs include costs which are directly attributable to the Independent Examination and other procedures necessary for compliance with statutory requirements and the governance of the charity.
Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.
The Company has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.
Financial instruments are recognised when the Charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.
Financial assets are offset, with the net amounts presented in the accounts when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the company’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
The Pebble Trust is a registered charity and therefore is not liable to income tax or corporation tax on income derived from its charitable activities, as it falls within the various exemptions available to registered charities.
In the application of the Charity’s accounting policies, the directors are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
No such judgements or estimates were used in the preparation of these financial statements.
Other income
Staff Costs and Trustees' Remuneration
The Charity employed no staff during the year (
The key management personnel of the charity consist of the trustees only.
No Trustee received any remuneration in respect of their services during the year (2023 - £Nil).
None of the Trustees were reimbursed for travel expenses during the year (2023 - £Nil).
Members' liability
The Charity is constituted as a Company Limited by guarantee. In the event of the Charity being wound up, members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £10 each (£30 in total).
Related party transactions
Ms L J Stoten is a partner of New Quadrant Partners, a firm of solicitors who provided legal and administrative services to the charity during the year. The total fees charged for the year (including VAT and disbursements) were £7,124 (2023 - £4,639).
James Simon Edward Arnell made donations of £275,000 (2023 - £nil) to the charity in the year.
Louise Arnell made donations totalling £200,000 (2023 - £175,000) to the charity in the year.
Port Flyer Limited made donations totalling £1m (2023 - nil) to the charity in the year.
James Simon Edward Arnell serves as the Chairman of the Brighton Fringe committee on a non-remunerative basis. A conflict policy statement is in place which is monitored to ensure there is no conflict of interest between the Pebble Trust and Brighton Fringe and this is reviewed annually.
James Simon Edward Arnell and Louise Arnell are Directors of Port Flyer Limited.