Introduction
OSCR inherited its charity records from HM Revenue and Customs, which until April 2006 had responsibility for granting charitable status in Scotland. Major work was undertaken by OSCR from December 2003, to establish contact with charities on HMRC's list. By mid-2006, and in order to meet timescales specified in the Act for the establishment of an accurate Register, OSCR took steps to remove those charities where all efforts to establish contact had failed
OSCR made sustained efforts over a considerable period of time to make contact with such charities, including searches with Companies House, checks with umbrella organisations, and Internet searches. We also checked whether any of the charities had applied to HM Revenue and Customs for Gift Aid or to local authorities for rates relief.
Any 'ceased' charity notified by OSCR of a removal decision by letter, or by publication on OSCR’s website, and that did still exist , had three weeks to ask us to reconsider our decision. Once this period elapsed, an organisation had to submit a new application to OSCR if it wished to recover its charitable status.
As a result of OSCR's work, the Scottish Charity Register is now populated entirely by active charities that are required to report to the Regulator.
Details of the Removals
March 2007
Details of the charities removed (MS Excel)
November 2006
Details of the charities removed (MS Excel)
September 2006
Details of the charities removed (MS Excel)
July 2006
Details of the charities removed (MS Excel)
The Right to a Review
If any of the charities listed above disagreed with our decision to remove it from the Register, it had the right (under section 74 of the 2005 Act) to ask us to review the decision. To do so the charity had to contact the Review Officer by e-mail or at the address below within 21 days of the date of such a report. The request for review had to be in the form of a formal communication under section 100 (4) of the 2005 Act – that is, it had to be made in writing and either:
- delivered in person
- sent by post in a prepaid registered letter or by the recorded delivery service,
- or sent by any electronic means (ie fax or email) which will cause it to be delivered on the same or next day.
The contact details for the OSCR Review Officer are:
Review Officer
OSCR
2nd Floor
Quadrant House
9 Riverside Drive
DUNDEE
DD1 4NY
We give notice to the charity of the result of the review by means of a formal communication within 21 days of the review being requested.
