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.

Charity Commission

Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Charity Commission framework

DCMS and the Charity Commission have published a framework document which sets out the governance, accountability, and working arrangements between them. It also explains the Commission’s statutory functions, objectives, and governance structure, alongside requirements for transparency, risk management, and accountability to Parliament and the public.

Updated guidance on changing governing documents

We’ve now considered the Charity Commission’s updated guidance on ‘How to make changes to your charity’s governing document (CC36)’ for CIOs, unincorporated associations, and trusts in more detail. Previously the unincorporated associations and trusts guidance was combined; these are now two separate pieces of guidance. Like the guidance for charitable companies we commented on last week, the updated guidance includes more detail about managing conflicts of interest, giving notice of or consulting on changes, and benefits to trustees and others. For the CIO and unincorporated associations guidance there is more detail about the role of members in these decisions.

Advice on giving safely

The Charity Commission and the Fundraising Regulator have published advice on giving safely when supporting the international earthquake aid effort in Venezuela.

Improving services

The Charity Commission has published a call for evidence inviting trustees and other users of its services to join a user research participant pool, which will help inform improvements to its systems and services.

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Sanctions

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has summarised the responses from its call for evidence about the ownership and control test in UK financial sanctions regulations.

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Tax and VAT

HMRC has published its annual update of UK charity tax relief statistics, including reliefs for charities and their donors. According to Civil Society, the statistics show that gift aid income for UK charities has increased by 10% to £1.88bn in 2025-26, representing a “57% increase on the amount received a decade before that”.

Charity Tax Group (CTG) is asking charities to help it build evidence in support of its advocacy work for better tax treatment of social media advertising, which currently does not benefit from any VAT relief and creates costs and challenges for many charities.  You can complete a short survey which asks for high-level information on your advertising spend and how much of that relates to social media.

CTG has also highlighted the following HMRC consultations:

  • VAT on land for social housing – this consultation (open until 18 August) considers whether the current VAT framework creates a barrier to the delivery of social housing.  The key proposal is to introduce a new VAT zero rate for the sale of land intended to be used for the construction of social housing.  HMRC would like to understand if this would make land transfers for social housing easier, and what safeguards are needed to avoid abuse of what would be a valuable relief.  
  • Proposed new reporting requirement for charities with an overseas tax registration – this technical consultation (open until 31 July) sets out the details of the new reporting requirement which is designed to collect better data on transactions with connected parties to manage transfer pricing risks.

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Funders and funding

DCMS has launched a call for evidence on National Lottery good cause funding, seeking views from organisations and individuals on how funding is distributed and accessed. It closes on 23 September 2026.

See ‘Social enterprise’ and ‘Social investment / social impact investment’ below.

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Fundraising

DCMS has shared the outcome of its consultation about changes to Gambling Commission fees. This confirms that fees for society lotteries will be frozen at their current levels (while other licence fees will increase by 25% overall). Jess Beale comments “this is positive news for charities with society lotteries who are looking to maximise funds to support their good causes. The consultation demonstrates that DCMS has listened to feedback from the charity sector which highlights that society lotteries are low risk and that cost increases would impact funds available for a charity’s good cause. It’s worth noting that exemption has not been extended to external lottery managers (including ELMs for society lotteries) which many charities work with”.

Massive’s top 25 rankings of the UK’s largest mass participation fundraising events found they raised a combined £136m last year, marking a fourth consecutive year of growth.

See ‘Charity Commission’ above.

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Cryptoassets

As explained in a press release, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has shared new rules for firms supporting people to buy, trade and hold crypto. Legislation in February 2026 brought cryptoasset activities into the remit of the FCA.  

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Data and privacy

Rayhaan Vankalwala and Nneka Cummins explore the introduction of a specific right for individuals to make data protection complaints directly to an organisation, which was one of the more significant changes made by the Data (Use and Access) Act.

A blog from Emily Keaney (Deputy Commissioner for Regulatory Policy, Information Commissioner’s Office) reflects on how data protection law can help to protect businesses from crime. This may be of particular interest to retail organisations. 

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Health and social care

Research from New Philanthropy Capital (commissioned by Genomics England) looks at UK community engagement in research and health. It includes tips about good practice, factors to consider (e.g. available resources), and building community engagement into organisational strategies.

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Social housing

See ‘Tax and VAT‘ above.

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Social enterprise

Access – The Foundation for Social Investment has highlighted the School for Social Entrepreneurs’ Social Investment Gateway Programme, a free 12‑month programme that will provide £2.2m of funding and support to charities and social enterprises. According to Access, the programme aims to support around 75 organisations over the next two years through a combination of enterprise grants and capacity building support. Registrations will close on 17 July 2026.

Co-operatives UK has published a blog that welcomes commitments in the government’s Farming Roadmap 2050 to support the development and growth of farmer co-operatives, including by addressing barriers to accessing finance.

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Social investment / social impact investment

The British Business Bank has announced commitments of up to £90m to 10 new microfunds under the first investments made through its £400m Investor Pathways Capital initiative. The programme aims to support first-time fund managers from a wider range of backgrounds and increase access to venture capital for early-stage high-growth businesses. The Pathway Fund has highlighted that three graduates of its Fund Manager Incubator programme secured cornerstone commitments through the initiative, which its CEO Asher Craig said demonstrated real demand for diverse fund managers.

Better Society Capital has set out three myths around “scale, risk and impact-washing” that it aims to dispel in relation to Local Government Pension Scheme investment in local economies. The article argues that place-based investment can be delivered at scale while balancing diversification, fiduciary duties, and impact considerations.

Friends Provident Foundation has reflected on lessons from involving a Future Generations Panel in its Endowments Investing Challenge. Drawing heavily on contributions from panel members, comprising “seven young people disproportionately impacted by a range of social, economic and environmental risks”, the blog considers whether stakeholders affected by investment decisions should have a greater voice in shaping them, and highlights practical ways charities can broaden participation in their investment processes.

Impact Europe has published Shaping Capital Markets for Impact in Europe, a position paper arguing that Europe has sufficient capital, expertise and ambition to address social and environmental challenges, but lacks the coordination needed to deploy it effectively. The paper, which “builds on the work of the Impact Fund Model 2.0 Working Group convened by Impact Europe”, identifies barriers to scaling impact investment due to constraints in European capital markets and proposes solutions aimed at “aligning financial structures with long-term value creation”. It also sets out views on Europe’s strategic priorities and makes policy recommendations aimed at strengthening impact investment and increasing participation from institutional investors.

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Sport

Join Ben Thomas and Helen Fry on 15 July for a webinar to help football clubs get ready for the new Independent Football Regulator licensing regime.

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Animal welfare

You’ll remember we’ve previously shared updates on the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) market investigation into the supply of veterinary services for household pets in the UK, including the supply of prescribed veterinary medicines for pets. In the final report, it was decided that the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) would be best suited to support a recommended package of remedies. The CMA is now consulting (until 30 July) on a draft Order and Undertakings which outline a levy that veterinary businesses would pay to the RCVS.

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Education

General

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that school teachers and leaders will see their pay increase by 6.5% over the next two years, after the Education Secretary accepted the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations in full. Teachers will receive an increase of 3.5% from September 2026, followed by 3% from September 2027, with £1.8 billion of additional funding provided to schools over two years.

The DfE has announced additional support and tools to help councils identify young people at risk of becoming not in education, employment or training (NEET) earlier and intervene more effectively. This includes a new Risk of NEET Indicator tool and new guidance for schools and colleges, following data showing that 32,100 so-called “Phantom NEETs” are going unaccounted for.

ImpactEd has published findings from its Beyond the Agenda research on how governance and leadership are experienced in schools, multi-academy trusts and colleges in England, drawing on responses from more than 500 governance and leadership stakeholders responsible for around 40,000 learners. The research highlights differences in engagement and experience between people working closely together, including lower confidence in financial resources among those closer to delivery and differences between governance and leadership views on challenge, influence and stakeholder engagement.

Ofsted has outlined a change in its approach to tackling unregistered children’s homes, designed to stop unsafe and unlawful placements and address issues of sufficiency in the children’s social care system.

Sir Martyn Oliver has spoken at the National Day Nurseries Association Conference about what Ofsted is doing to help support a better, safer early years system, following concerns about nursery safety.

Schools

The CMA has named the businesses currently under investigation in its ongoing investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct in the supply of roofing and other construction services. It is investigating suspected bid-rigging in connection with services supplied to schools and other public and private sector bodies.

The Attorney General’s Office, the DfE and Oak National Academy have launched free, classroom-ready lesson plans on the rule of law for every school in England and Wales.

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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 fortnight 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.