John Tate asks whether the latest NCVO funding boost from the Big Lottery Fund will be spent wisely.

A new group of charity leaders headed by RNID chief executive John Low has met to discuss the role of the chief executive in corporate governance, ACEVO announced today. The group, which met on Tuesday, is to work to improve performance, accountability and professionalism in the sector, and will respond to recent comments from ex minister Alan Milburn, who is chairing the Joint Committee on the draft Charities Bill. Speaking at an ACEVO conference on May 6, he warned charities that they "cannot consider themselves immune from the general loss of confidence in corporate governance", and said that the sector should adopt "governance structures capable of guaranteeing probity and professionalism".

So we have heard from Stephen Bubb – chief exec of Acevo. He has commented on the expense issue on his blog - 1,459 words, no less. Almost a book! To cut to the chase, if I read his blog correctly, he will publish his expenses to his members but not to a wider audience. A step in the right direction perhaps but with over 75% of those who responded to the Charity Finance poll saying they would like expenses published this is disappointing.