Child abuse continues to be deservedly high priority in the public awareness.

The exposure of Sir Jimmy Savile and the jailing of Max Cliifford and Rolf Harris has been followed by concerns of a Whitehall cover-up of political paedophiles, with the late Liberal MP for Rochdale Sir Cyril Smith named, amid allegations that he had put pressure on the BBC not to “muck-rake” the private lives of politicians, at the risk of losing parliamentary support for its enforced licence fee. Continue reading →

An Assisted Dying Bill proposed by Lord Falconer has generated heated and passionate debate in Parliament.

If the Bill became law it would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live, an aspect that some opponents say could put pressure on the dying to end their lives and cease to be a burden to those who have to look after them. Other opponents say that assisting the terminally ill to die would be colluding in the idea that someone coming to the end of their life is of no further value.

Supporters of the change in the law say that those in unbearable pain should be allowed to hasten their end, reduce their suffering and die with dignity. And that the sanctity of life should include the right to death.

New charities that duplicate existing ones risk wasting donations.

This is the view of the outgoing chief executive of the Charity Commission, Sam Younger, who points out that there were 6,661 applications for new charities in the 2013/2014 financial year, a 16% rise on the previous year.

One example of common duplication, says Younger, is bereaved military families who set up a charity in memory of their loved ones, when it would be wiser to appreciate that wanting passionately to be doing something to help and the reality of effectively running a registered charity are very different. Better, he says, to pause and consider working with existing organisations. Continue reading →

Aids and HIV charities have backed calls to decriminalise drug use in the UK, to reduce the transmission of HIV and Aids among users.

They say that there is evidence from other countries that the move would not increase the use of drugs but would “dramatically reduce” the harm caused by the illegal taking of drugs, including HIV transmission.

A fundraiser who admitted stealing £300,000 of donations made to the Help For Heroes charity has been told to expect a lengthy jail term when he is sentenced on September 15th.

Christopher Copeland, 51, sent teams of volunteers out to supermarkets around Devon in Help For Heroes ex-military vehicles to collect money for the charity, money that he then paid into his own bank accounts. He started the scam in February 2010 and it finished in September 2011 after one of his volunteers became suspicious and called the police. Officials at the charity said they were appalled at Copeland’s calculated and devious dishonesty. Continue reading →

Secret filming at fundraising call centres by the Channel Four Dispatches TV documentary series has revealed some worrying lapses in ethics at two large firms appointed by two large charities. (HOW TO STOP YOUR NUISANCE CALLS, Monday August 8th 2014)

At NTT Fundraising in Bristol, appointed by the Great Ormond Street children’s charity, an undercover reporter was told it was fine to lie about their own personal circumstances in order to build rapport with potential donors called, but to avoid false claims that their own children had cancer, and/or were treated at Great Ormond Street Hospital, “because they could be found out”. The reporter was also told that they would be expected to get 42 new sign-ups from donors per month, and would be paid financial incentives for bettering this number, but was in any case sacked after two days training for failing to ask every potential donor three times for money, and for accepting too many objections for not donating from the people she called. Continue reading →

The number of prosecutions for hunting with dogs is at an all-time high.

Since 2010 the number of people charged under the Hunting Act of 2004 – which came into force in 2005 – has risen rapidly, from 49 in 2010, to 72 in 2011, to 84 in 2012, and to 110 in 2013.

Fox hunting is the main target of the ban introduced by the Labour party and the 2012 figures include successful prosecutions and convictions of members of the 176 year old Heythrop Hunt, as well as the hunt itself, with which Conservative UK Prime Minister David Cameron had ridden six times before the ban. Fines totalled more than £26,000, after the court was shown and accepted filmed evidence of members of the Heythrop encouraging their dogs to illegally kill foxes.

See also BAIT in Charity Matters June/July, and the resulting reader’s letter in this issue.