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
- Charity Commission
- Charity mergers
- Data and privacy
- Cyber security
- Company law
- Scotland
- Health and social care
- Social enterprise
- Social investment/social impact investment
- Culture and creative
- Education
Consultation on financial thresholds in the Charities Acts
Last week we flagged that a consultation has opened on financial thresholds in the Charities Acts. Charity Finance Group has welcomed the consultation saying it has “argued for several years that the audit threshold should be raised in line with inflation”. CFG has also flagged that the Scottish government recently announced it will be raising the audit threshold from £500,000 to £1m.
Charity Commission
Outgoing Chair Orlando Fraser
Civil Society has reported on comments made by the outgoing Chair, Orlando Fraser, in an interview with the Times, where he discussed culture wars, the politicisation of charities and complaints. Fraser is quoted as saying that, “charities would do best to avoid being distracted by the culture wars, calm down and focus on sticking to their core purposes”. Speaking about political campaigning, Fraser said that “political campaigning can happen in furtherance of your services, but it must be done in a measured, respectful way, not like the aggression you see in politics”. Bates Wells Partner Suhan Rajkumar comments on the article on LinkedIn.
Newsletter
The Charity Commission has published the latest edition of its newsletter, which collates various updates we have reported on previously. The newsletter highlights the Commission’s newly developed ‘Trustee Financial Toolkit‘ which provides online resources on financial topics and practical tools and guidance to help charities plan and manage their finances.
Charity mergers
If your charity is thinking about a merger, or you would like to learn more about the process, join us at our upcoming in-person seminar with Eastside People on Tuesday 13 May, from 4:30pm – 6:30pm. The session will cover:
- The latest merger trends
- When merger is the right decision for your organisation
- Finding a partner and getting stakeholders on board
- Structures and options for merger
- Common obstacles
- Key legal and other steps
- Case studies and practical tips
We’ll be joined by charity leaders Anand Shukla, Chief Executive at The Henry Smith Charity and trustee of the Richard Thornton Foundation, and Jo Land, Group Chief Executive at Avenues Trust Group and trustee at Pathway UK. They will be sharing stories and insights from their experience steering charities to successful mergers. Register here to book your spot.
Data and privacy
The Information Commissioner’s Office has announced it will hold its annual Data Protection Practitioner’s Conference on 14 October 2025. The event will include perspectives on data protection laws from keynote speakers, practical workshops and panels. It is a free event hosted online and is open to all regardless of experience level, sector or specialism.
Cyber security
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has published:
- Its annual Cyber Security Breaches Survey, finding that UK charities were hit by 453,000 cyber crimes in the last year which is down from 924,000 in the previous year; and
- the Cyber Governance Code of Practice. The code is tailor-made for boards of medium and large organisations, including charities, but the government is recommending that small organisations seek to implement the Code’s five key principles for keeping organisations cyber secure. The principles include risk management, developing a cyber strategy, promoting a positive and accountable cyber security culture, incident planning, and establishing a cyber governance structure.
Company law
A reminder that the window for voluntary verification of identity by individuals opened on 8 April 2025 as planned. Companies house has updated its guidance, confirming that directors and people with significant control can now voluntarily verify their identity with Companies House directly. Authorised Corporate Service Providers (ACSPs) can now also verify identities as long as they are registered as a Companies House authorised agent.
Scotland
OSCR has published four top tips for charity trustees in response to common issues with applications from SCIOs that are solvent but want to dissolve to ensure applications can be dealt with as efficiently as possible.
Volunteer Scotland has published a report on the state of Scottish volunteering, finding that “volunteering is in crisis” as the number of Scottish adults who volunteered with a group or organisation in 2023 hit its lowest ever recorded rate at only 18% (down from 26% in 2019). The report also analyses the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on volunteering, the effect of volunteering on wellbeing, the deprivation gap and the demographic profile of Scotland’s volunteers.
Health and social care
The King’s Fund has published “Ten actions the government can take to improve children’s health”. The consultation ends on 30 June 2025.
The Welsh Government has opened a consultation on the draft “Code of practice on quality assurance and performance management, escalating concerns, and closure of regulated care and support services”.
Social enterprise
Harnessing the mutual sector’s potential for growth. WPI Economics have published a report, commissioned by the Mutuals and Co-operatives Together group, that sets out the economic and societal benefits of mutuals, as well as key barriers to mutual growth (press release). One key finding from the report is that mutuals generate £35 billion in direct gross value added (GVA) and support more than 1.5% of the UK economy, despite making up just 0.2% of businesses. The report also makes targeted recommendations to government, stakeholders and policy makers centred around removing financial barriers to ensure the growth of the mutual and cooperative sector in the UK.
B Lab has launched its new standards for B Corp certification. Under the previous system, certification was awarded on a points system that requires companies to achieve a minimum aggregate score of 80 across a range of questions. Under the new standards, businesses will meet performance requirements across seven ‘impact topics’: purpose and stakeholder governance; climate action; human rights; fair work; environmental stewardship and circularity; justice, equity diversity and inclusion; and government affairs and collective action. Businesses will also be required to assess their impact on their value chains and take steps to prevent or reduce negative impacts, as well as commit to continuous improvement, which will be measured by meeting milestones after three and five years. B Lab UK states that businesses recertifying this year under the previous standards should submit their B Impact Assessment on or before 30 June. After this, recertifications will be subject to the new standards.
Social investment/social impact investment
UK impact investor British International Investment (BII) has published Net Zero Target Setting Guidance, which aims to encourage and assist fund managers to set “credible, science-aligned” net zero targets. The guidance outlines different types of targets, sets out recommended engagement actions and provides a clear framework for fund managers to set a net zero target. BII calls upon fund managers to adopt the principles outlined in the guidance in order to improve regulatory readiness, enhance reputation, attract capital aligned with climate-conscious investment strategies and meaningfully contribute to a more sustainable future (press release).
Following the release of Better Society Capital’s 2023 Enterprise Level Data, Access – The Foundation for Social Investment – has shared insights into its programmes and approach to social investment. The data shows that Access is “continuing to reach smaller organisations in more deprived communities who would otherwise not be able to access social investment”.
Culture and creative
The new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund is now open to applications.
Education
Higher Education
The Guardian has reported that the Office for Students (OfS) will be writing to institutions that have transgender equality policies similar to the University of Sussex after the OfS’ ruling against the university last month, which included a £585,000 fine for failing to uphold freedom of speech. The article states that “a number of institutions have since taken down their trans and non-binary quality policies while the content is reviewed”. The Guardian has also reported that, following the ruling, “university leaders are struggling to find the right balance between freedom of speech duties and a legal requirement to protect students and academics from abuse and harassment, and feel they have not been given enough clarity by the OfS”.
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.