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OSCR removes 'dead charities'
05 July 2006
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has begun the process of removing charitable status from organisations that cannot be traced. The measure is a key part of the Regulator’s ongoing work to establish a comprehensive and accurate Scottish Charity Register.
The first 2,150 ‘dead’ charities were listed by OSCR on 5
th July. Those with known addresses have been issued with letters outlining the decision, and notice of those without contact details has been published on the Regulator’s web site,
www.oscr.org.uk
OSCR has begun the process with the decision to remove those charities it has confirmed have ceased operating and further monthly batches are scheduled for notification throughout the remainder of the year. Charities on the list have 21 days to contact OSCR before the decision takes effect and they are removed.
OSCR inherited its charity records from HM Revenue and Customs, which until April held the responsibility for granting charitable status in Scotland. OSCR’s Head of Charities, Marieke Dwarshuis, said that major work had taken place over the past year to confirm the active charities on the new Register, but the time had now come to ‘clean up’ the Register and to actively remove those where all efforts to establish contact had failed.
OSCR’s efforts to establish contact have included searches with Companies House, checks with umbrella organisations, and even Internet searches. The regulator has also checked whether any of the charities have applied to HM Revenue and Customs for Gift Aid or to local authorities for rates relief.
Any charities notified by OSCR of its decision by letter, or by publication on OSCR’s website, and that do still exist will have three weeks to ask the Regulator to reconsider its decision. Once this period has elapsed, an organisation must submit a new application to OSCR if it wishes to recover its charitable status.
View a
list of the charities to be removed.
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