How We Regulate Charities

We have a statutory duty under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (the 2005 Act) to encourage and assist charities to meet their legal requirements.

We regulate by:

1. Determining whether bodies are charities

We assess new applications for charitable status against the charity test and we enter those passing the test on to the Scottish Charity Register. If your organisation is thinking about becoming a charity, you can find out more from our Becoming a Charity in Scotland page.

Under the 2005 Act we have a duty to review entries on the Register and to remove those charities which no longer meet the charity test.  Our Rolling Review of charities checks whether existing registered charities continue to meet the charity test and therefore can remain on the Scottish Charity Register.  Read our Rolling Review pages for more information on the process.

2. Encouraging, facilitating and monitoring compliance

Charities are accountable to OSCR and the public.  Once charities are registered they have to provide us with certain annual information about the way in which they operate and how they use their resources.
Read our Managing your Charity section for more information on what charities need to do to meet our annual monitoring programme.

3. Identifying and investigating apparent misconduct within charities

The 2005 Act allows us to make inquiries into apparent or alleged misconduct in:
  • charities
  • bodies that are connected to or controlled by charities
  • bodies that are not charities but are represented as charities.
The primary purpose of an inquiry is to ensure that charity assets are protected and are used to achieve a charity's objects. Further information is available from our How to Complain About a Charity and Inquiry Reports pages.

4. Giving consent to make changes

Charities need to seek our consent to make certain changes to their charity or to dissolve it.  More information on our consents process is available from our Making Changes to Your Charity and Charity Reorganisation pages.

5. Providing information

We publish a range of guidance materials to assist charities and their professional advisers to meet their responsibilities under the 2005 Act.  You can search our website for these documents.

6. Working with others

We work closely with a number of other organisations, including umbrella bodies and other regulators.  We look to develop ways of reducing the regulatory burden on charities that operate under more than one regulatory regime.  Read Our Work With Other Regulators page for more information.