VoluntaryNews

The Protection of Freedoms Act was passed into law on 1st May, with the first commencement orders enacting measures in the Act from early July.

The legislation includes the scrapping of the Vetting and Barring Scheme and the creation of a new Disclosure and Barring Service "to oversee a scaled-back barring regime focused only on roles working most closely with vulnerable groups". Details of implementation timetable etc when we have them.

Civil Exchange, a think tank to strengthen civil society's connection to government http://www.civilexchange.org.uk, has produced 'Big Society Audit 2012' with support from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation UK. This looks at  the impact of successive government policies in this area, sets out the broad direction and flags up where changes might help.

The Charity Commission is to consult on the information it collects from charities.

A senior policy adviser said at a recent meeting that the consultation, due in May, will look at whether the Commission needs to collect "more, less or different" information in charities’ annual returns and summary information returns. This could include distinguishing features such as whether a charity worked overseas, owned property, was member of an umbrella body or claimed Gift Aid.

The Charity Commission, for England and Wales, has developed a number of web pages giving new views of the sector. They give a graphical overview of the sector, the sector broken down by charity income size, larger charities (income over £500k) divided by income source, and Top 10 charities by a number of criteria.

From January 2012, new legislation gives PPL the right to collect fees for playing music recordings from charities that were previously exempt. This is in addition to the fee payable to PRS for Music for playing copyright music.

The Health and Safety Executive has revised guidance on portable appliance testing, 'Maintaining portable electrical equipment in low-risk environments' (IND236). HSE is urging businesses not to waste "their money on unnecessary checks that have no real benefit". Download, or order, via http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg236.htm (pdf 488KB).

The research report 'Benefits of Open Access to Scholarly Research for Voluntary and Charitable Sector Organisations' has been produced by the Office for Public Management and NCVO.

It makes clear the Open Access publishing model for higher education research would give the voluntary sector direct and indirect benefits from increased access. Already, more voluntary and community sector organisations use OA than pay the more prevalent subscriptions.

The Queen's Speech on Weds 9th, setting out the UK government's legislative programme for the year ahead, didn't have much to immediately grab a charity sector audience.