New electronic mail marketing rules for charities – the ‘charitable purpose soft opt-in’

Overview

• The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (DUAA) received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025.
• Section 114 of the DUAA will add regulation 22(3A) into the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR).
• This change means charities will be able to send electronic mail marketing about their charitable purposes without the recipient’s consent, as long as they meet a number of requirements.
• We’re referring to this as the ‘charitable purpose soft opt-in’.
• We expect this change to take effect in January 2026, and charities can’t use it until then.
• We understand charities will want to plan ahead so we’ve provided some information and suggestions for how you can prepare.
• We’re also consulting on our approach to the new rules. We recognise the charity sector is diverse, so we’re keen to hear about any points we might not have considered or where you’d find more detail helpful.
• We already have detailed guidance about direct marketing and PECR. Your responses to our consultation will help us update the relevant sections of our existing guidance to reflect the change. 

To help you understand the law and good practice as clearly as possible, this consultation says what charities must, should and could do to comply.

Legislative requirements

• Must refers to legislative requirements

Good practice

• Should does not refer to a legal requirement but is what we expect you to do to comply with the law. You should do this unless there is a good reason not to (good practice). If you choose to take a different approach, you must be able to demonstrate that this approach also complies with the law.
• Could refers to an option or example that you could consider to help you comply effectively. There are likely to be various other ways you could comply.

We have highlighted these words throughout for ease of reference.