Our weekly round up of news and updates from across the sector

To help you navigate this week’s content, the links below will take you straight to content by topic.

Consultation on financial thresholds in the Charities Acts

The Department for Culture, Media & Sport has launched a consultation until  12 June about financial thresholds in charity law in England and Wales. The consultation will consider whether the thresholds should be increased based on inflation or for other reasons (e.g. consistency with other areas such as company law). A number of the thresholds are recommended as staying the same (e.g. the £5,000 registration threshold) and proposed increases in the 1992 Act in relation to fundraising are welcome.  The consultation also covers financial thresholds relating to charity reporting and accounting. 

DCMS says it aims to publish a summary of the consultation responses within 12 weeks, together with the government’s response. 

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Charity Commission

Significant donation to the British Museum

We have been delighted to help with facilitating the most valuable object donation in British Museum history. The Bates Wells team (led by Partner Laura Soley) worked closely with Anthony Misquitta, trustee of the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, to help secure the permanent donation of the Sir Percival David Collection of Chinese ceramics to the British Museum. The collection is valued at approximately £1 billion, which is believed to be the highest value gift ever made to a UK museum. The Charity Commission has shared a press release explaining how it gave its written authority to change the charity’s governing document to facilitate this gift. In a post on LinkedIn, Soley commented that she was “Absolutely thrilled to have been involved in helping with this amazing gift.”

Joint advice on supporting charities helping earthquake efforts in Myanmar

The Charity Commission and the Fundraising Regulator have shared advice for donors about how to help people impacted by the earthquake in Myanmar. Their recommendations include considering a donation to the Disaster Emergency Committee’s Myanmar Earthquake Appeal (which the government is match funding up to £5 million), as well as generally checking the Fundraising Regulator’s Directory and the Charity Commission’s charity register before donating to any organisations.   

Casework and registrations

The Charity Commission has published its quarterly registration and casework figures for October to December 2024. Overall in 2024, the Commission opened 3,357 regulatory compliance cases, 2,620 serious incident reports, and 50 statutory inquiries were opened. Similar numbers of each type were closed last year. There were 170,755 charities on the register at the end of December with a total income of £99.6 billion.

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Investigations and complaints

The Charity Commission has opened a regulatory compliance case into the charity Sentebale.

The Charity Commission has published a press release about an ongoing inquiry into The Saint George Educational Trust. The charity was set up to carry out activities that advance the Catholic religion and education about the faith. Key findings include:

  • The charity’s chair had allowed the charity’s bank account to receive ‘donations’ from unknown sources, which were then transferred to entities unknown to the trustees.   
  • The trustees then successfully claimed, from HMRC, Gift Aid in the sum of £80,455.75 on those funds coming into the charity. The charity retained 20% of the Gift Aid element with the remainder being transferred to accounts unknown to the trustees.  These claims were later disallowed by HMRC, and the Commission recovered the total sum of £146,166.14 (including interest and a penalty) from the charity.   
  • The inquiry discovered more than £30,000 of charity assets had been converted into gold bullion held by individuals with no formal connection to the charity. It also found items described as being of religious significance, such as rare books, belonging to the charity, said to have a value in the £10,000s, were in a storage unit that was also not in the charity’s possession.   
  • The inquiry found that the trustees’ actions demonstrated a complete failure in their duty to act in the charity’s best interests. There was no evidence that they conducted any checks on the entities transferring funds to the charity’s bank account, nor did they independently assess how the money was spent.   
  • The charity’s website and social media accounts contained content linked to far-right activities and a post likely to be interpreted as support for Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organisation.   

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Charity law cases

In Colin Rankine v Charity Commission for England & Wales, the First-tier Tribunal has upheld the disqualification of a trustee by the Charity Commission for misconduct and mismanagement. Mr Rankine was one of three trustees, and the Chairman, of an incorporated charity known as Homeschool Social Enterprise.  He was disqualified from being a trustee of any charity and from holding an office or employment with senior management functions in relation any charity in England and Wales for nine-and-a-half years.  This was due to his unauthorised receipt of remuneration, operating outside the charity’s objects, and “a worrying lack of understanding and appreciation of the law relating to charities and what is required for proper management and conduct of a charity by a trustee”.

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Community interest companies

The Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies has made a small amendment to its Community Interest Companies Guidance, regarding Schedule 3 Articles of Association – the guidance now notes that “Dividends to a CIC or a Charity are not subject to the dividend cap”.

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Tax, VAT and business rates

Private schools

The Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Act 2025 has received Royal Assent. The Act amends the Local Government Finance Act 1988 to remove eligibility for relief from business rates for private schools in England which are charities with effect from 1 April 2025.

The BBC has reported on a challenge to the government’s VAT on school fees policy that was heard in the High Court last week. The legal challenge is being brought by the Independent Schools Council (represented by Lord Pannick KC), a group of faith schools and the parent-led group, Education not Discrimination. They are collectively seeking that the policy is incompatible with the right to education as set out in Article 2 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights and that the policy is discriminatory. A decision is expected to be issued in writing at a later date.

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Sector general

The Young Foundation has shared a report considering a ‘whole society’ approach to preparedness for crisis events, which calls for civil society to be recognised as “critical national infrastructure in the UK.

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Stephen Lloyd Awards – Open for Entries

Fuelling innovative change, the Stephen Lloyd Awards are on the lookout for bold changemakers with creative solutions to everyday societal or environmental challenges. If you, or someone you know, has an early-stage project tackling a current issue in a new and impactful way, this is the perfect opportunity to bring it to life. Finalists receive £2,500 and winners are awarded £25,000 to accelerate their idea, alongside practical support. Open to charities, social enterprises, and social entrepreneurs, apply today or encourage someone in your network to take this opportunity. Entries close at midnight on 14 May.  Please visit www.stephenlloydawards.org or get in touch with Mona Rahman at [email protected]. The Stephen Lloyd Awards are an initiative of the Bates Wells Foundation, charity reg. number 1150321.

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New obligations for event premises

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act has received Royal Assent. The Act requires those responsible for in-scope premises and events to consider and prepare for the risk of a terrorist attack.  It will not be brought into force for at least 24 months, to allow for the set-up of the regulator and to give premises and events time to prepare.

The Act establishes a tiered approach, linked to the number of individuals it is reasonable to expect may be present at the same time, at least occasionally, at premises and events:

  • “Standard duty” premises and events. Premises and events with a capacity between 200 and 799 individuals must have in place, so far as reasonably practicable, procedures for their workers to follow if an act of terrorism occurred at the premises or event, or in the immediate vicinity. Example procedures may include evacuation, invacuation (moving people to a safe place), locking down the premises and communicating with individuals on the premises.
  • “Enhanced duty” premises and events. Premises and events with a capacity of 800 or more individuals must also have in place measures to reduce their vulnerability to an act of terrorism and the risk of physical harm to individuals if an attack was to occur there or nearby. Example measures include monitoring the premises and its immediate vicinity, and physical and information security measures. The measures must be documented and provided to the Security Industry Authority (SIA).

The obligations fall on the person responsible for the event or premises (broadly the person with control of them), who must notify the SIA of such event or premises. For enhanced duty premises or events, a senior individual must be made responsible for compliance.

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Fundraising

See above under “Consultation on financial thresholds in the Charities Acts” and ‘Charity Commission’.

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Data and privacy

New guidance on anonymisation

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published guidance on anonymisation and pseudonymisation. The guidance provides an overview of anonymisation techniques, including their strengths and weaknesses and the suitability of their use in particular situations, including case studies.  The guidance also covers pseudonymisation, which replaces information that directly identifies people. This might include replacing names or identifiers with resource numbers. The ICO reminds organisations that pseudonymisation should not be confused with anonymisation and that pseudonymisation is a way of reducing risk and improving security but not a way of transforming personal data to the extent the law no longer applies.

Fine

The ICO has announced it has fined three companies in the same group over £3 million for security failings which put the personal data of 79,404 people at risk following a ransomware attack in August 2022. The fine was reduced from £6.09 million provisionally announced in August 2024, following a voluntary settlement with the ICO. 

The companies provide IT and software services to organisations on a national scale, including the NHS and other health care providers, and handle people’s personal data, including special category data, as a data processor.  The ICO concluded there were serious failings in the companies’ application of fundamental cyber security principles and compliance with its own security standards. Security failings included gaps in the deployment of multi-factor authentication, a lack of comprehensive vulnerability scanning and inadequate patch management.   

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Public procurement and subsidy control

HMRC has shared an action plan for 2025/26 focusing on increasing voluntary sector participation in HMRC procurement processes. 

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Commercial law

The Competition and Markets Authority has published finalised guidance on the provisions of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 which govern enforcement of consumer protection law and unfair commercial practices. These provisions came into force on 6 April 2025.

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Social enterprise

See above under Community interest companies.

Utilities consuming half of budgets: Youth centres at risk as bills continue to rise. Social Investment Business has published a report on the impacts of utility bills on the youth sector and the opportunity to drive growth, safeguard services and accelerate the transition to clean power. The report analyses data from the government-funded Youth Investment Fund, which has provided funding for youth facilities in levelling up priority areas and early-stage/seed resource funding to underpin them, to deliver improved outcomes for young people across England. The report sets out key findings and 7 recommendations to policy makers to simultaneously bring down the cost of utility bills and advance the transition to clean power.  

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Social investment/social impact investment

Pioneers Post reported from the Skoll World Forum 2025, including that the Skoll Foundation will commit $25 million through an ‘emergency fund’ to, primarily, help the foundation’s existing awardees and grantees adjust to the US funding cuts. In a speech at the forum event, the foundation’s founder, Jeff Skoll, called for action from other funders, saying that “we hope [the $25 million of funding] serves as a signal to other funders to consider this an emergency and increase their grant making”.

Better Society Capital has reported that research led by the Policy and Evaluation Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University reveals that the Social Investment Pilot (SIP), established during the pandemic, continues to deliver effective support and sustainable housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness. The SIP was introduced in 2021 as a result of collaboration between the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Better Society Capital. Three fund managers, Bridges Fund Management, Social and Sustainable Capital and Resonance, were brought in to invest £50 million in buying and leasing properties across England for people with recent experience of Temporary Accommodation and rough sleeping across England in areas with high homelessness rates and housing affordability challenges. This funding is stated to have helped crowd-in another £215m of investment.

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Faith based organisations

A new Combatting Hatred Against Muslims Fund will provide funding to monitor incidents of anti-Muslim hate and support for victims. The fund is open to applications from a single organisation, or a group of organisations to work together to deliver an accurate record of hate incidents across England. The window for applications is now open and will close on 18 May at 23:59.   

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International development

Bond has commented on the latest statistics from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office on how UK aid was spent in 2024. Bond has flagged that the UK continues to spend 20% of the UK aid budget on asylum seeker costs in the UK despite planned cuts.

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Animal welfare

The Competition and Markets Authority has published an updated administrative timetable and timetable infographic for its market investigation into the supply of veterinary services for household pets in the UK.  According to the administrative timetable, the CMA will use the period until April 2025 to publish working papers. The CMA intends to publish its provisional decision for consultation in July 2025 (rather than May or June as previously indicated). The CMA will conduct response hearings in August.  The CMA had been aiming to publish its final report on the market investigation in September or October 2025, ahead of the statutory deadline of 22 November 2025. The administrative timetable now states that the CMA will publish the final report in November.

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Education

See above under Tax, VAT and business rates.

General

Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, has delivered a speech to educational leaders in London, focusing on Ofsted’s inspection improvement proposals and how they will drive even higher standards for children. Oliver revealed that the new system will be designed to “better recognise the context in which the school is operating” and move to a system of five inspection grades, with the addition of “strong” and “exemplary” above “secure” in order to “encourage schools to improve”.

Schools

During the final debate of the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill, the House of Commons has rejected the Lords amendment to the Bill that would have allowed the policy to end charitable rate relief (business rate relief) for private schools to be reversed in the future, by 302 votes to 167. The Bill has now received Royal Assent to become the Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Act 2025.

Higher Education

In response to a Sunday Times investigation (subscribers only) into subcontracted higher education provision , Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, has released a statement which includes the announcement that the Public Sector Fraud Authority has been instructed to coordinate the response to all allegations concerning evidence of abuse of public money associated with the franchised higher education system. The Office for Students (OfS) has responded to the investigation and the concerns about the lack of regulation of subcontracted higher education providers, commenting “we welcome the government’s proposals to close this loophole by bringing many more of these providers under our regulatory remit”.

The OfS has published its findings from its investigation into Applied Business Academy (ABA) relating to concerns about its Diploma in Education and Training course. OfS found that many students could not have credibly completed their placement requirement to complete 100 hours of teaching and a range of governance weaknesses. During the investigation, ABA ceased offering higher education courses and is no longer registered with the OfS so the investigation could not be completed. If ABA continued to operate, “it’s likely the OfS would have made formal findings of breaches of its conditions of registration, and would have considered imposing significant sanctions, including fines and deregistration”.

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Disclaimer – The information contained in this update is not intended to be a comprehensive update – it is our selection of the website announcements made in the week up to last Friday which we think will be of interest to charities and social enterprises. The views expressed in items we’ve included are the views of the named authors/sources, and should not be taken to be the views of Bates Wells, its partners or employees. The content in this update is necessarily of a general nature – specific advice should always be sought for specific situations.