New Charity Regulation Proposals for England and Wales: Overdue or Overdone?

One of the most important aspects of modern governance of any organisation, whether a charity, a commercial entity or a governmental department is the emphasis on greater openness and accountability. This is partly a response to a breakdown of trust in government processes, which is evident, for example, in the intense media scrutiny of the decision to go to war with Iraq. It is also a response to the breakdown in trust in commercial governance and professional self-regulation, as demonstrated, for example, by the collapses of Enron in the USA and what might yet be regarded as its European counterpart, Parmalat. The fact that many charities receive public subsidies in one form or another (from government funding, to funds raised from the public, through to reliance on volunteers) makes it all the more important that they operate in a transparent manner. This Article will consider recent attempts in England and Wales to improve accountability within the charitable sector. In May 2003, a draft Charities Bill was published taking forward the long-awaited review of charity law. The draft bill, which will modernise charity law and better enable charities to prosper contains a series of measures outlined by the British government in July 2003. This was in response to the consultation document from the Prime Minister\u27s Strategy Unit, published in September 2002, in which wide-ranging changes in the law and regulation of the charitable and wider not-for-profit sector were proposed. This Article will focus on two of the main aims of the proposed reforms: developing greater accountability and transparency to build trust in the sector; and, maintaining that trust by independent, open, and proportionate regulation

New Charity Regulation Proposals for England and Wales: Overdue or Overdone?

One of the most important aspects of modern governance of any organisation, whether a charity, a commercial entity or a governmental department is the emphasis on greater openness and accountability. This is partly a response to a breakdown of trust in government processes, which is evident, for example, in the intense media scrutiny of the decision to go to war with Iraq. It is also a response to the breakdown in trust in commercial governance and professional self-regulation, as demonstrated, for example, by the collapses of Enron in the USA and what might yet be regarded as its European counterpart, Parmalat. The fact that many charities receive public subsidies in one form or another (from government funding, to funds raised from the public, through to reliance on volunteers) makes it all the more important that they operate in a transparent manner. This Article will consider recent attempts in England and Wales to improve accountability within the charitable sector. In May 2003, a draft Charities Bill was published taking forward the long-awaited review of charity law. The draft bill, which will modernise charity law and better enable charities to prosper contains a series of measures outlined by the British government in July 2003. This was in response to the consultation document from the Prime Minister\u27s Strategy Unit, published in September 2002, in which wide-ranging changes in the law and regulation of the charitable and wider not-for-profit sector were proposed. This Article will focus on two of the main aims of the proposed reforms: developing greater accountability and transparency to build trust in the sector; and, maintaining that trust by independent, open, and proportionate regulation

The Charity Commission for England and Wales: A Fine Example or Another Fine Mess?

The ability of the Charity Commission for England and Wales to regulate the charitable sector effectively has been repeatedly called into question in recent years. At the same time, public sector funding cuts have led to its budget being almost halved in real terms since 2007/08. Numerous official reviews and inquiries into its effectiveness have highlighted its weaknesses and raised concerns about it failing to take sufficient action to prevent abuses of charitable status. In response to the Commission’s claims that it lacks sufficient legal powers to deal with such abuse, new legislation has been passed which will fill some of these gaps. A greater concern, however, is how the Commission is to be adequately resourced in the future. This article examines some of the reasons behind the recent intense scrutiny that the Charity Commission has experienced and considers what the future will hold for the regulator

Is a standalone IL course useful?

Most Higher Education institutions are involved in the creation of online materials to support their students' information literacy skills development – which is labour intensive, and inevitably results in a great deal of duplication of effort across the sector. A recent project, run jointly by SCONUL's Advisory Committee on Information Literacy and The Open University, addressed whether it is possible to create a generic information literacy course that can be delivered anywhere. The OU's standalone module, MOSAIC, which has been running for the last three years with positive feedback from students, provided an ideal starting point for the investigation

Strengthening charity regulation in England and Wales? The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and the impact of academic witnesses

Research on charity regulation is frequently triggered by charity law developments. However, it is often unclear what impact such research has on policy makers and parliamentarians shaping charity regulation. Both authors of this paper were called to give evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee examining the draft Bill that led to the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016. We review the possible impact of our evidence on the ultimate Act and on charity regulation more broadly

Towards an institutional PLE

PLEs in their broader sense (the ad-hoc, serendipitous and potentially chaotic set of tools that learners bring to their learning) are increasingly important for learners in the context of formal study. In this paper we outline the approach that we are taking at the University of Southampton in redesigning our teaching and learning infrastructure into an Institutional PLE. We do not see this term as an oxymoron. We define an Institutional PLE as an environment that provides a personalised interface to University data and services and at the same time exposes that data and services to a student’s personal tools. Our goal is to provide a digital platform that can cope with an evolving learning and teaching environment, as well as support the social and community aspects of the institution