Tania Mason

Veterinary charity PDSA has put the value of its volunteer force at £10.3m during 2008, up from £8.5m three years ago. The figure was arrived at by counting the numbers of hours contributed by volunteers and estimating how much the charity would have had to pay them if they were paid staff. In total during 2008, more than 4,800 volunteers clocked up 1.25 million hours.

The Charity Commission has fired off a letter to all MPs and peers to remind them that it was parliament that created the public benefit requirement and not the Commission, in the wake of the recent media backlash against the failure of two independent schools to pass the public benefit test. The letter, from the Commission’s chair Dame Suzi Leather (pictured) and chief executive Andrew Hind, begins: “You may have seen some media coverage recently regarding the Charity Commission’s public benefit assessments of 12 charities including some independent schools.

The Charity Commission has appointed interim managers at 35 charities over the last ten years, safeguarding £40.8m of charitable funds at a total cost to the charities involved of more than £1.9m.  

Debt management charity the Consumer Credit Counselling Service is to change its name to the StepChange Debt Charity next month ahead of a massive marketing campaign that aims to raise awareness of its existence among members of the public and other charities.