ACEVO’s chief executive Sir Stephen Bubb today warned the Charity Commission that they risk alienating themselves from the charity sector in their strategy and approach to regulating the charity sector.

The comments emerged as the Charity Commission closed their eight-week consultation on new questions for the charity Annual Return in 2015, the document used by the Commission to monitor and gather information on charities.

The Commission is seeking to gather data on campaigning activities, public service delivery and chief executive pay.

Each has been a major news story for charities in the last year.

Sir Stephen Bubb said: “The Charity Commission needs a strategic focus and direction; too often it is following rather than leading the debate.

“On campaigning, charities have a strong duty to speak out in public, which is an integral and age-old part of what we do to get the very best for our beneficiaries.

"The Commission however seems to move from news story, to news story with no direction or thought.

“The Commission have recently had a worrying tendency to pander to an infantilised debate – and to make things worse, not better.

"I hope the Charity Commission will draw an important lesson from the unanimous opposition, from ACEVO members and the wider sector, to their disproportionate and illogical proposals.”

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