Andy Atkins, director of relief and development at Tearfund, is to succeed Tony Juniper as executive director of Friends of the Earth.

The Queen has set in motion a law to allow banks and building societies to hand over money lying in dormant bank accounts to community investment, but the government has stopped short of committing part of the funds raised to a social investment bank.

The director general of the Office of the Third Sector indicated last week that the government would not seek to make the Compact a legally binding commitment.

RISE, the umbrella body for social enterprise in the south west of England, is to pilot a social enterprise kitemark that will help consumers identify whether goods or services they are buying are produced by a business that exists for a social purpose.