OSCR removes 31 charities from Scottish Charity Register
Today (27 September 2023) the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has removed 31 charities from the Scottish Charity Register.
Over the past few months, OSCR has been working to identify charities which no longer meet the charity test. This usually means:
- The regulator cannot find any evidence suggesting that the charity is still operating; and
- The charity has failed to engage with communications from OSCR.
Organisations which have failed to meet the charity test have now been removed from the Scottish Charity Register.
Martin Tyson, OSCR’s Head of Regulation & Improvement, explains why it is important to remove charities like these from the register:
“One of OSCR’s Regulatory Priorities for the period until 2026 is to focus on charities that fail to engage with the regulator and demonstrate to the public how they make a difference.
“Around 10-12% of charities on the Scottish Charity Register are failing to meet their legal duty to file annual accounts and engage with OSCR. These charities are failing to provide key information to the public about what they do and how they spend their money – and so there’s no evidence to show they are meeting the charity test.”
By identifying and removing charities which are undertaking no activity and are failing to meet they charity test, OSCR hopes this will:
- Increase the proportion of charities on the register that are actively providing public benefit and reporting transparently to the public.
- Maintain public confidence in charities and OSCR.
- Reduce OSCR resources required to pursue non-compliant charities, allowing the regulator to focus on other important work.
Martin Tyson adds:
“Over the last few months, work has been undertaken by a project team at OSCR to identify charities that we believe are suitable to be removed from the Scottish Charity Register under section 30 of the 2005 Act.
“The 34 charities which have been identified for removal so far have failed, over a number of years, to submit annual accounting information. This is one of the primary ways of a charity demonstrating it is providing public benefit, and the vast majority of charities comply promptly with this duty.
“The charities were given a period of 21 days to respond to our correspondence or to request a review of OSCR’s decision. Of these, only three responses were received, resulting in 31 charities being removed from the register today.
“The project team are actively looking to find more charities that will be suitable for removal, and hope to identify another batch of inactive charities soon.”
Download the Section 33 report with full details of the charities which are being removed here.