Street fundraisers mystery-shopped by their regulator broke significantly more rules in the summer months than in the winter, results of the PFRA's first compliance benchmark shows.

The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association has today published its inaugural compliance benchmark for penalties awarded for breaches of rules on street face-to-face fundraising.

In the year from September 2012 till August 2013, the PFRA carried out 1,283 compliance visits to street fundraising teams - either mystery-shopping them using hired specialists or observation of their tactics by the PFRA’s compliance officer.

The fundraising teams, which comprised two to six fundraisers, were issued with an average of 46 penalty points each time they were compliance-checked.

Each broken rule from the PFRA Rule Book carries a penalty of 20, 50 or 100 points, depending on the severity of the offence.  There are two types of rules – conduct rules, which relate to professional standards, and operational rules, which cover compliance with conditions of fundraising agreements.

The teams visited were awarded an average of 35 points for breaches of conduct rules and 12 points for breaking operational rules.

The results also showed that breaches were much more common in the summer months.  September 2012 had the highest offending rate, with 83 points per visit, then this declined steadily to a low of 21 points per visit in April.  But by July this year, the number of points awarded had climbed back up to almost 80.

Nick Henry, the self-regulatory body’s head of standards and allocations, admitted the seasonal difference was surprising, but said some members had suggested it might be due to the large numbers of students taken on during the summer months.

Students might not be as well versed in the rules, he said. “We’ll see if this is repeated next year and, if it is, what measures we would need to take to address this issue.”

Henry also said it was difficult to draw any concrete conclusions about professional standards from the first year of the project. “Forty-six points is the equivalent to having half a team member working outside the agreed zone or two fundraisers standing too close to a zebra crossing.

“We hope that future editions will show that our compliance and enforcement are driving down these averages.”

Professional fundraising agencies will be given their own scores and charities that employ them will be provided with details of the points awarded on their campaigns.

But the PFRA has already said it won't publicly name and shame the worst offenders.