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.

Charity law should clarify that it is a charitable purpose to measure social impact, and also provide a statutory power of social investment, say lawyers Bates Wells and Braithwaite in a submission to the Charities Act Review.

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.

Challenge Network chief executive Craig Morley has said Nat Wei, the government's former Big Society tsar and one of the charity's founders, had no influence over its recent £7.1m grant from the Cabinet Office.