More than half of the public think there are too many charities and want the sector to be rationalised, research carried out for the Charities Act review has shown.

Baroness Hayter, the new spokeswoman for the shadow Cabinet Office team in the House of Lords, has criticised NCVO for not lobbying on behalf of the voluntary sector when the Welfare Reform Bill was going through Parliament.

Lord Ashley of Stoke, president of both Action on Hearing Loss and Deafness Research UK, died on Saturday after a short illness, at the age of 89.

Viva Palestina, the charity founded by recently-elected MP George Galloway in 2009, has never submitted financial accounts to the Charity Commission, and is nearly a year overdue in providing required financial information to the regulator.