Requirements under Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act
Section 3 of the
Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (the
Act) requires OSCR to keep a public register of charities,
review it from time to time, and keep it up to date. The Act lists
information that the Register must contain for each charity. The
information is:
- the name of the charity
- the principal office or the name and address of one of the
charity trustees (unless, under subsection (4), OSCR is satisfied
it is necessary to protect an individual or the charity's
premises)
- the charity's purposes
- certain other information (including whether it is a designated
religious charity or national collector).
The history of the Scottish Charity Register
Before 1 April 2006, an index of charities was maintained by
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). We were established
in December 2003 and during the transition period we devoted
considerable resources to updating the information held about
Scottish charities.
Under the terms of the transition arrangements set out
in
section 99 of the Act, we were required to
populate the Scottish Charity Register with bodies recognised as
charities by the Inland Revenue under section 1(7) of the Law
Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990. The Scottish
Charity Register was populated with all 'live' charities on the
HMRC 'Index' at 31st March 2006.
Working towards a definitive Scottish Charity Register
Before we took up our powers in April 2006:
| Category |
As at 1 Sept 2005 |
As at 1 March 2006 |
| Charities marked as ceased by HMRC |
5,666 |
5,940 |
| Charities who have completed returns to OSCR |
17,527 |
19,762 |
| New charities since 4 May 2005 |
456 |
760 |
| Charities who have not sent returns to OSCR |
9,233 |
7,148 |
| No contact details provided by HMRC |
4,347 |
3,558 |
Since taking up powers in April 2006:
| Category |
As at 1 July 2007 |
As at 1 July 2008 |
As at 1 July 2009 |
| Former charities now ceased |
14,834 |
16,158 |
17,284 |
| Active charities |
23,473 |
23,518 |
23,219 |
| New charities |
1,092 |
1,261 |
949 |
Keeping an accurate Register
To keep an accurate Scottish Charity Register, we will have to
add new charities and remove charities from the register under
certain circumstances. Circumstances for removal include:
- where we receive notification from the charity itself
requesting removal from the Register
- where we, on completion of inquiries about a charity, are
satisfied that the charity no longer meets the charity test
- where a charity fails to comply with a direction, following
inquiries by us into the charity
- where the charity has been granted permission, by us, to wind
up or amalgamate and supplies the supporting documentation
- where a charity fails to comply with our monitoring
requirements.