DUAA and the Charity Soft Opt-in: The Need to Revisit Regulatory Interpretation

The introduction of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 marked a significant shift in how charities may lawfully communicate with supporters. Section 114, which created the new charitable purpose soft opt-in, was secured following sustained engagement by the DMA, working closely with peers across both Houses.

The amendment adopted by Government reflected the DMA’s evidence-led case that charities needed a level playing field with commercial organisations, enabling them to contact individuals who had already shown interest in their work without reverting to consent in every instance. The accepted DMA view and consequent legislative intent was to reduce barriers, increase supporter engagement, and help charities raise funds more effectively in a challenging economic climate.

The ICO’s draft guidance, however, raises concerns across the charity sector about how this reform will operate in practice. The DMA has therefore produced a new paper ‘DUAA and the Charity Soft Opt-in: The Need to Revisit Regulatory Interpretation’, setting out a constructive case for refining the regulatory approach so that the benefits Parliament intended can be realised.

The central issue is the emerging gap between the broad intention behind the DUAA amendment and the narrow scope implied in the draft guidance. Charities operate within complex supporter ecosystems: retail, membership, lotteries, raffles, donations, events, campaigning, volunteering and service access all form part of a single, continuous relationship. Yet the draft guidance treats many of these interactions as outside the scope of the charitable soft opt-in, creating distinctions that do not reflect supporter behaviour, charity law or operational realities.

Evidence gathered from organisations of varying size and mission has shown how significant these implications could be. Many charities report that the draft framework would require them to run parallel permission regimes for consent, charitable soft opt-in and commercial soft opt-in. For organisations using commonly adopted CRM platforms, this would mean bespoke development, new workflows, expanded segmentation and increased governance overhead. Smaller charities, and those with ageing systems, have warned that these requirements could discourage them from adopting the soft opt-in altogether, undermining the purpose of the reform and risking further inequality across the sector.

Over recent months, the DMA has worked closely with national and heritage bodies, medical research charities, environmental organisations, membership organisations and charities providing frontline support. Across all these conversations, several themes recur: the need for guidance that recognises unified supporter journeys; the importance of clear, workable definitions of ‘expressing an interest’ and ‘offering support’; the operational infeasibility of multiple overlapping opt-in regimes; and the need to uphold supporter trust through simplicity and transparency. These insights have been essential in shaping the proposals set out in the DMA’s paper, which offers a practical route to achieving both compliance and the DUAA’s intended benefits.

The DMA’s objective is to support the ICO in developing guidance that is proportional, operationally realistic and consistent with the way supporters understand their relationship with charities. The proposals outlined in the paper are designed to help the soft opt-in function improve fundraising effectiveness, enhance supporter understanding, and enable charities to allocate more of their resources to the public benefit.

Members are encouraged to download the full paper, which provides a structured analysis of the issues and sets out constructive recommendations. The DMA will continue working with the ICO, Government and the charity community to support the development of guidance that strengthens both compliance and impact.

Download DUAA and the Charity Soft Opt-in: The Need to Revisit Regulatory Interpretation.