Captain Sir Tom Moore: NHS charity stresses £38m is not under investigation

Captain Sir Tom Moore became famous for his fundraising efforts during the first coronavirus lockdown

The £38m raised by Captain Sir Tom Moore when he walked 100 laps of his Bedfordshire garden is "not under investigation", the charity which received it has said.

NHS Charities Together said money it received for its Covid-19 Urgent Appeal had "funded thousands of projects".

It said the Captain Tom Foundation, set up after his death, is a "completely separate organisation" to it.

The foundation is subject to an ongoing inquiry into its finances.

Capt Sir Tom, who was born in Keighley, West Yorkshire, died in 2021 aged 100.

He became an international figure, during the start of the first coronavirus lockdown in 2020, for his fundraising walks in the grounds of his family home in Marston Moretaine.

Capt Sir Tom won the nation's hearts with his fundraising walk, which took in 100 laps of his garden

After he died, his family set up the Captain Tom Foundation, which is no longer taking donations or making payments due to a Charity Commission inquiry, which started a year ago.

Announcing the probe, the commission said "concerns have mounted" over the charity and independence from a business run by Capt Sir Tom's family.

An NHS Charities Together spokesman said: "The Captain Tom Foundation is a completely separate organisation that was established after Captain Tom did his fundraising for our Covid-19 Urgent Appeal, and the Charity Commission has made clear that the £38m he raised for NHS Charities Together is not under investigation."

A statement added that its Covid appeal raised more than £160m from thousands of supporters which had been "distributed across the network of NHS charities to reach every NHS Trust and Health Board in the UK".

"It has funded thousands of projects and provided vital mental health support for NHS staff, training for emergency volunteers, equipment and support for patients, and community partnership programmes to prevent ill health and reduce pressure on NHS services," the statement said.

"The support we continue to provide has never been more vital, and we are thankful to everyone who helps make it possible."

A Covid appeal progress report on its website "demonstrates the difference donations" are making, the charity said.

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Recently, the younger of his two daughters, Hannah Ingram-Moore, who lived with Capt Sir Tom, has been told to knock down an unauthorised building used as a home spa.

The spa (the C-shaped building to the right of the pond) is at the home where Capt Sir Tom Moore walked 100 laps of the garden in 2020

The building on the site of the family home - for the use of the occupiers and the Captain Tom Foundation - had received planning permission in August 2021 and had been partly constructed when revised plans submitted in February 2022 including a spa pool, toilets and a kitchen, "for private use".

These revised plans for what was called the Captain Tom Building were turned down by Central Bedfordshire Council in November 2022.

Neither The Captain Tom Moore Foundation nor Ms Ingram-Moore have responded to the BBC's request for comment on the planning application.