Legal Issues and Volunteering

Overview

• Legal Issues Involving Volunteers - VE article

Articles

• Definitions Of Volunteering - VE Information Sheet
• National Minimum Wage Act and Volunteers - VE Information Sheet
• Who Is Allowed to Volunteer? - VE Information Sheet
• Accepting Volunteers From Overseas - VE Information Sheet
• The EU Working Time Directive - VE article
• Copyright and volunteers - VE article
• Summary of the "Grayson" tribunal case - VE article

(Please visit other themes of the Good Practice Bank to find Information Sheets about rules on state benefits, health and safety, reimbursing volunteer expenses etc.)

Examples

• Template confidentiality and data protection forms - Volunteer Centre Sheffield (MS Word and PDF)

Alternatively, you can find example documents related to legal issues in other areas of the Good Practice Bank. Please choose a core theme to find examples related to that topic.

Links

Data Protection and Retention of Records

• Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
  A public body which gives guidance and helps to oversee the Data Protection Act and the Freedom of Information Act
  http://www.ico.gov.uk

  Useful pages on the ICO website
  - Legal obligations under the Data Protection Act
  - When you need to 'notify'
  - References and good practice
  - Retention of recruitment records (especially sections 1.7, 2.9 and 2.15)

• Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD)
  A professional body for management and personnel development issues. The information is focused on employment, but still useful for volunteer managers.
  http://www.cipd.co.uk/

  Useful pages on the CIPD website
  - Retention of personnel and other related records
  - Providing and using references

Possible sources of legal information or help

Please note that Volunteering England is unable to endorse any sources of legal advice. The following organisations are listed below because they have experience of working with the voluntary sector. Some offer services for free and others charge for advice.

• Interchange Legal Advisory Service
  http://interchange.org.uk/legal/
  
• Lawworks - the Solicitors' Pro Bono Help Group
  http://lawworks.org.uk/
• Professionals for Free
  http://www.professionals4free.org.uk/
• Law Centres Federation - the national voice of Law Centres
  http://www.lawcentres.org.uk/
• Russell Cooke Solicitors
  http://www.russell-cooke.co.uk/
• Bates Wells & Braithwaite Solicitors
  http://www.bateswells.co.uk/

Other useful websites

• Sandy Adirondack
  Information on governance and law for the voluntary sector
  http://www.sandy-a.co.uk/

Publications

Free publications

• Volunteers and the Law (8 page summary) - Volunteering England
• Volunteers and the Law (full 60 page version) - Volunteering England

Priced publications

• Voluntary Sector Legal Handbook - Sandy Adirondack and James Sinclair Taylor (external link)
• Data Protection for Voluntary Organisations - Paul Ticher (external link)

Share your experiences!

The Good Practice Bank is growing steadily as more information is added to it. An important feature of the Bank is allowing users to share their documents with other volunteering organisations. We are particularly interested in receiving example policies or documents that you are happy to share with others. If we use your contribution, you could win a book on volunteering from our regular prize draw.

• If your organisation has an example to contribute, please use our simple form to submit it.
• Or, please send us an email or telephone 0800 028 3304 (Monday-Friday, 10.30am-12.30pm and 2.00pm-4.00pm)
• We welcome calls through Typetalk/TextDirect. Please dial 18001 followed by 0800 028 3304 (opening hours as above).