Chief executive in place by this Christmas; new body up and running be end of 2016

By this Christmas a new fundraising regulator must be appointed and a preference service must be operating by the end of next year.

Lord Grade, chair of the independent fundraising regulator, said in a speech at the National Council for Voluntary Organisation’s fundraising summit a new fundraising body had to be up and running sooner rather than later.

“There’s a time for discussion and we could have gone on discussing this for ever, but it’s now time for us to start making decisions,” he said.

“We have to deliver these changes, we have to have the new regulator up and running and operational by the end of next year.”

Grade said he wants a chief executive of the new body to be in place by Christmas and had decided against running a public recruitment process to find the right person.

He also said that the Etherington Review’s recommendations would be implemented by the body and that those who were wanting to question or challenge these wouldn’t be tolerated.

“We look forward to working with everyone over the next few months and we expect many ideas will be batted around," he said.

"However there will be no sympathy from the new regulator for those wish to row back on the Etherington review. That won’t wash. That ship has sailed.”

It was announced that George Kidd, chair of the Direct Marketing Association, will lead a working group on how the new Fundraising Preference Service will operate.

He said the new service should be a safe haven for people who need it, as well as a tool for people to manage the way they speak to charities and a refuge for people who feel that fundraising has become intolerable.