Two-thirds of the Charity Commission’s 370 employees are taking part in today’s public sector strike action.

The Commission told civilsociety.co.uk that in Liverpool 84 per cent of its staff are out on strike, 54 per cent in Taunton and 42 per cent in London. In Newport all six staff in the Wales office have left the premises to join the industrial action.

Yesterday the Commission announced that its contact centre, which provides advice over the phone, would be closed for the day due to the strike action.

A statement on the Commission’s website says that much of the information provided can be obtained online and that the centre would be, “open as usual on Thursday 1 December”.

The offices in Liverpool, Taunton and London are all open and in yesterday's statement the Commission said it had "contingency plans in place to manage reduced staffing".

Public sector unions called a national strike over government plans to reform public sector pensions. In England 58 per cent of state schools are closed and in Scotland only 30 out of 2,700 council-run schools are open. In Wales 80 per cent of state schools are closed.