Fundraising companies are doing rather well out of charities that employ them and their teams of “chuggers” (charity muggers).

A report last month in the Daily Mail shows that some of the firms take the first year or so of direct debit donations as their fee, something of which donors will be unaware. One firm, One Sixty Fundraising has charged an upfront fee of £1.303,731 to Unicef, which hopes to raise more than £5million over four years but will have to wait around twelve months before they cover these costs. Another client of the firm, Plan International, have been charged £478,000 plus VAT, with hopes that it can raise £1,304,940 over 5 years, but will not be covering the costs for 27 months. Two firms working for Barnados, Real Fundraising and Urban Leaf Ltd have charged fees of nearly £30,000 with the prospect for Barnados of raising £80-90,000 over five years but waiting around 20 months before costs are covered.

Chuggers are seen by many as unwelcome high pressure sales operatives who pounce on their victims during rush hours and lunch breaks, and in more than 100 towns they are banned from canvassing on certain days. In some parts of Newcastle they have been banned altogether, using Public Spaces Protection Orders.

An RSPCA inspector died trying to save 40 gannets that had been trapped on a rock at Porthchapel Beach, Cornwall during Storm Imogen in 2016, an inquest has heard.

Mike Reid, 54, is the only RSPCA employee to have ever been killed during the course of his job in the last 180 years and it is thought he was swept out to sea during the violent storm, which had wind gusts reaching 100 mph. His body has never been recovered.

The Legatum Institute, a charity think tank, has been warned by the Charity Commission that it could lose its charitable status if it continues to publish biased material.

The Institute published a pro-Brexit report on Brexit and free trade prepared by its research body, the Special Trade Commission, and claimed when challenged that the bias was “wholly unintentional”.

Conservation charity Plantlife has issued some information about Japanese knotweed following research which showed that less than 20% of the population could identify it growing near their property or in their garden.

Getting it wrong can be expensive – the plant can penetrate cracks in brickwork and concrete and has roots that can grow down as far as 9 feet, and out 21 feet in all directions – and getting rid of it can cost up to £15,000. Plantlife advise to look for lush green heart-shaped leaves on zig-zag purple-speckled stems. The rhizomes, the horizontal roots that produce the white shoots, are bright orange when cut open. In spring reddish purple shoots emerge from ground level crimson buds, and grow into bamboo-like canes flecked with purple and with cream-coloured flowers. These canes die back to ground level in the winter.

In a recent court case two homeowners in South Wales successfully sued Network Rail after knotweed spread from a railway embankment to the foundations of their houses. This made them unsalable, as banks and building societies won’t give mortgages on properties with a knotweed problem. However this could change as recent research by the University of Leeds and infrastructure services firm AECOM shows that the invasive plant very rarely causes structural damage and in any case less than trees, climbing plants and shrubs such as buddleia growing near buildings.

The National Trust has issued warnings based on Health and Safety to members of the public seen swimming naked in its lakes at Woodchester Park, near Stroud, Gloucestershire.

One complainant stated on social media that the dippers were “scaring the carp and making her and her dog feel sick” A Trust spokesman told the press “For one thing the water is very cold”.

Some small charities in the sector admit that they are unsure whether or not they are compliant with the new GDPR standards (General Data Protection Regulations) which came into force at 12:01 am on Friday May 25.

These require organisations to ensure that they have consent to directly contact those who are not currently dealing with them, such as potential customers, subscribers or donors. They also give these groups the right to know what data is held on them and what use it is put to, as well as the right to be able to easily unsubscribe from contact lists, a right that also applies to customers.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has been at pains to reassure organisations that the Draconian fines quoted in some media of up to 20 million euros, or 4% of turnover, whichever is the greater, apply to persistent lawbreakers, rather than those who seek advice from ICO on how to comply, and then act on it.

The new regulations have seen lots of organisations seeking permission to carry on emailing, and given lots of victims the chance to not respond and thus conveniently unsubscribe, actions that an email from the Labour Party claimed would “ruin Jeremy Corbyn’s birthday”.

Investigations are taking place at the Royal National Institute for Blind People’s (RNIB) Pears Centre for Specialist Learning near Coventry following a number of “serious incidents” reported by the charity. One recent allegation was of a “sexual nature” and was followed by the resignation of the charity’s chief executive, Sally Harvey, who joined eight months ago.

The Pears Centre is a residential facility for young people who are blind or partially sighted, as well as some who have learning difficulties or disabilities.

The Charity Commission is concerned that the incidents there may indicate that there has been a failure on the part of the RNIB to “comply with regulations designed to safeguard and protect vulnerable children” Ofsted have rated the centre “inadequate” and have threatened to withdraw its registration.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is set to get new powers to hold directors of nuisance call companies personally liable for payment of fines. Currently fines are imposed on the company, which the directors can simply wind up, leaving the ICO unable to collect the fine, and then commence trading under another name, all perfectly legally.

One serial exponent, closing down two nuisance call companies and thus avoiding nearly £2million in fines was Gregg Rudd, whose success has helped firm up the conviction of the authorities that something had to be done.

Last year, according to Ofcom 3.9 billion nuisance phone calls and texts were made, equating to 7,420 per minute, mostly associated with bogus personal injury and insurance claims, payment protection insurance and pensions.

It is not known if those who run charities that make nuisance calls, or employ someone else to do so, will also be held personally liable.

Two in three of the UK’s health trusts are ignoring new orders to offer cataract surgery to all those sufferers whose doctors believe they would benefit. Instead most of the trusts are only offering to treat cataracts where patients are nearly blind with them, on the grounds of saving costs.

This has been described as “inhumane” and “profoundly stupid” by the Daily Mail newspaper which, along with the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) and Age UK point out that denying cataract sufferers the simple and quick operation is a false economy since those with failing sight are more prone to falls, incapacity and mental illness, ending up costing the NHS even more.