The new Community Right to Challenge, part of the government's Localism Act, has come into force.

What is the Right?

The new right enables voluntary and community bodies (as well as local authority staff and parish councils) to submit an expression of interest to their local authority to provide a service. If accepted, the local authority must then enter into a procurement exercise for that service.

Communities and Local Government has reviewed the draft guidance and now published the Statutory Guidance on the Community Right to Challenge. This states that relevant bodies able to be challenged include county councils, district councils, london boroughs, fire and rescue and 'any other person or body carrying out a function of a public nature'.

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Lord Hodgson's 5-year review of the Charities Act 2006 has now being published. 

Read Lord Hodgson's full report on the Cabinet Office website.

Lord Hodgson has made over 100 recommendations to build trust and confidence in the charity brand. Many will make it easier to lead and manage a charity. These range from proposals for a clearer, stronger system of self-regulation for fundraising, to abolition of the Summary Information Return and implementation of a single process for registering with the Charity Commission and HMRC.

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