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
- Investigations and complaints
- Tax and VAT
- Employment
- Volunteering
- Climate change and environment
- Safeguarding
- Fundraising
- Public procurement and subsidy control
- Children’s services
- Health and social care
- Social enterprise
- Social investment / social impact investment
- Animal welfare
- Education
Charity Commission
Beacon cyber security incident
A cybersecurity incident has affected Beacon CRM, a widely used customer relationship management platform in the charity sector. The Charity Commission has issued guidance for charities affected by the Beacon cyber security incident. If your organisation has been affected, take a look at this blog by Rayhaan Vankalwala and Hannah Lyons which looks at things your organisation should be thinking about now and what actions you need to take if a data breach has occurred. Civil Society has also reported on this incident, including comments from Beacon CRM and the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) – Report and recommendations
Responding to a written parliamentary question about the government’s confidence in the chief executive and board of the Charity Commission after PACAC’s recent critical report, government minister Baroness Twycross said: “I have full confidence in the leadership of the Charity Commission, and am confident that the board is taking action to address the concerns raised by the report”.
Investigations and complaints
The Charity Commission has opened a statutory inquiry into Al-Khair Foundation due to alleged links with Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation. It has also issued an order restricting certain financial transactions by the charity without the Commission’s prior consent.
The Charity Commission has opened an inquiry into Merseycare Transport Services Ltd due to governance and financial management concerns.
The Charity Commission has launched a statutory class inquiry to investigate concerns about charities working in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine. The inquiry will initially involve 8 charities and the Commission intends to extend the inquiry to other charities over time.
Tax and VAT
Thanks to Charity Tax Group (CTG) for highlighting that HMRC has updated its guidance in VAT Notice 700/17 and its internal manuals at VIT44600 oDepn VAT recovery for defined benefit pension schemes. An important change is that HMRC now accepts that VAT on investment costs can be recovered by the employer organisation. As there are rules around who receives the invoices and what the contractual arrangements are, CTG cautions that in practice this could mean that input tax recovery is more difficult than it has been before.
CTG has also reported on the case of St Patrick’s International College [2026] EWCA Civ 852. This concerns the VAT liability of higher education courses offered by organisations delivering higher education courses outside the traditional university sector, such as private colleges and other independent higher education providers. After defeats in the First and Upper Tier Tribunals, St Patrick’s was successful in the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the college was entitled to exempt its supplies of education on the grounds of fiscal neutrality (i.e. on the basis that similar supplies should be treated in a similar way). For charities involved in education and training, the repercussions of this case are worth monitoring closely. The decision should not be too heavily relied on yet as HMRC may be given leave to appeal to the Supreme Court. Any such appeal could impact on the scope of the exemption.
Employment
We’re running bimonthly employment law webinars, which will cover recent people, HR and immigration developments which directly impact your role and organisation.
Smruti Jeyanandhan and Gill McKearney explain how the UK right to work regime will expand on 1 October 2026 to include worker contracts, individual sub‑contractors, and online matching services. A key takeaway is that civil penalties of up to £60,000 per illegal worker may extend beyond the direct employer and, in some circumstances, up the supply chain.
Volunteering
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has published the results of its Community Life Survey on volunteering and charitable giving in England in 2024/25. It found that 17% of adults in England participated in formal volunteering at least once a month in 2024/25, a slight increase on the previous year (16%) but still below previous levels such as 23% recorded in 2019/20.
Climate change and environment
The Law Society of England and Wales has published climate change guidance for in-house lawyers. The guidance aims to support in-house solicitors in applying the Law Society’s 2023 guidance, which sets out solicitors’ core professional duties in the context of climate change. The in-house guidance includes a checklist to help in-house teams embed climate considerations into their legal advice, contracts, policies and reporting.
Safeguarding
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has published details of changes to regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026. The changes remove the supervision exemption, meaning individuals who teach, train, instruct, care for or supervise children frequently, or overnight, may be in regulated activity even if supervised. The main group affected is volunteers, who will need an enhanced DBS check with children’s barred list information where they fall within the new scope.
Also see first item below under ‘Education‘.
Fundraising
The Gambling Commission has published its 2026 money laundering and terrorist financing risk assessment of the British gambling industry. This includes an assessment of the risk factors for society lotteries.
Public procurement and subsidy control
The government has announced changes to the rules on public procurement, building on existing social value measures – please see Procurement Policy Note 026 for more information. Among other changes, the assessment of bids will weigh the potential benefits to the local community, created through the provision of services by a bidder, at 20% (rather than 10%) in the scoring of contracts worth £5m or more. The stated aim of the changes is for businesses awarded public contracts to have a greater positive impact in key areas, focusing on employment and training opportunities. Civil Society has highlighted sector responses to the government’s proposed changes.
Also see under “Social enterprise” below.
Children’s services
Ofsted has announced its first successful prosecution of an unregistered children’s home provider. Catalyst Care Limited and its two directors were fined a total of £92,400 after pleading guilty to operating three unregistered children’s homes in Kent between October 2022 and April 2025. The directors were also disqualified from carrying on, managing or having a financial interest in a children’s home.
Health and social care
See this government press release for more details of the government’s plans to redesign mental health services to provide 100 new community mental health centres and 59 dedicated mental health emergency departments.
Social enterprise
See above under ‘Public procurement and subsidy control‘.
Social Enterprise UK has responded to the government’s announcement regarding changes to public procurement rules, welcoming the increased weighting for social value in larger public contracts, while noting concerns about the potential implications of increasing the threshold at which social value requirements apply and the narrowed focus for positive impact creation that removes supply chain diversity, including VCSE participation, as a scored outcome.
Social investment / social impact investment
Resonance has announced the launch of the Resonance Housing Pathways Fund, an open-ended residential property fund aiming to raise £700m by the end of 2030 to provide affordable homes for people facing homelessness. The fund builds on Resonance’s existing homelessness property funds and has secured backing from investors including Better Society Capital, Oxfordshire Pension Fund, Westminster City Council and City Bridge Foundation.
Co-operatives UK has published a report marking 10 years of the Community Shares Booster Fund. The report reflects on the fund’s role in helping community enterprises raise finance through community share offers and sets out recommendations for the future development of the community shares market. Co-operatives UK has also announced plans for a new dedicated investment fund for community shares.
Animal welfare
As summarised in our update, permission has been granted for a judicial review challenge brought by Lawyers for Animals and Sole Iriart (a campaigner with Camp Beagle) to proceed to a full hearing. The claim argues that the Home Secretary’s designation of the life science sector – including animal testing facilities – as “key national infrastructure” under the Public Order Act 2023 was unlawful. Helen Fry is acting for the claimants, instructing Ted Loveday of Maitland Chambers.
Education
See above under ‘Safeguarding‘ and ‘Children’s services‘.
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on proposed changes to Working Together to Safeguard Children and the Children’s Social Care National Framework. The proposals aim to strengthen family help services, improve multi-agency child protection arrangements and support the development of multi-agency child protection teams. Schools, colleges and other education providers are encouraged to respond. The consultation closes on 4 September 2026.
Schools
Schools Week has reported that the government does not intend to reopen the previous government’s curriculum and assessment review, despite the announcement of wider education reforms and new vocational pathways for young people. The DfE is expected to continue with its existing timetable, with a draft revised curriculum due to be published this autumn, a final version expected in spring 2027 and implementation from September 2028.
The DfE has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), including a 0.2 percentage point reduction in employee contribution rates across most salary bands from April 2027. TES reports that the DfE say the changes are required following the latest valuation of the scheme and are expected to affect around 780,000 active TPS members. The consultation closes on 30 October 2026.
Further Education
The DfE has reported additional investment through the Growth and Skills Levy, including fully-funded apprenticeship training for eligible under-25s from 1 August 2026, up to £8,000 in support for SMEs hiring young apprentices, and National Insurance contributions relief for apprentices under 25. The package also includes a bursary of up to £4,500 per household to address a Universal Credit barrier, £287 million for over 22,000 additional college and post-16 places, and forms part of the government’s aim to deliver 50,000 new youth apprenticeships by the end of this Parliament.
The DfE has updated several GOV.UK apprenticeship resources, including the off-the-job training (OTJT) collateral, apprenticeship agreement template and privately funded apprenticeships guidance, primarily to refresh logos and align content with the 2026 to 2027 apprenticeship funding rules and new OTJT policy. The OTJT guide has also been shortened, and the evidence collection form now includes a calculator and example completed form.
The DfE has announced that, from 10 August 2026, the enter learning data service will include growth and skills short course offer apprenticeship units (FM39) and study programmes (FM25), alongside apprenticeship standards, Care to Learn and existing funded/non-funded apprenticeship provision. The update also improves learner data management, including recording non-funded aims within funded apprenticeships, migrating changed learner records individually, and viewing previous imports with learner counts.
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST), formerly the Department for Business and Trade, has launched a consultation on whether the reasonable unpaid leave provisions for public duties under section 50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 remain fit for purpose. It proposes extending the entitlement to additional education governance roles, including governors of FE designated institutions, statutory FE audit committee members, and roles within academy trusts and maintained schools.
Higher Education
The Office for Students (OfS) has published the rules for its new freedom of speech complaints scheme, which will launch on 1 September 2026. The scheme will enable staff, academic job applicants, visiting speakers and certain other individuals to complain directly to the OfS where they believe their free speech rights have been infringed. Alongside the scheme rules, the OfS has updated its freedom of speech guidance following the University of Sussex judgment, including amendments to its framework for assessing restrictions on lawful speech and additional practical examples for providers. Mark Abbott explains more in this blog.
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.