Legislation was laid in Scottish Parliament in February 2024 to bring into effect some of the changes contained in the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023.
The first changes took effect from 1 April 2024 with further measures being introduced in October 2024. Three further changes will come into force during 2025 and now is the time for Scottish charities to start preparing for these.
In the coming weeks, Scottish charities will be able to submit trustee information to OSCR through OSCR Online. Charities will be required to submit the following details for each trustee:
- Full name
- Home address
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Date of birth
OSCR will hold this information securely for regulatory purposes and to maintain contact with trustees as needed. Later in 2025, the first and last names only, of each trustee, will be published on the Scottish Charity Register. In the meantime, charities should:
- Inform trustees of the upcoming change
- Collect the required trustee information
- Ensure relevant individuals have access to OSCR online
By the end of 2025, OSCR will publish the annual accounts of all charities on the Scottish Charity Register. This differs from the current regime whereby accounts are only published for charities with income greater than £25,000 and or for those charities constituted as a SCIO. The accounts will be published for at least five years and personal information contained within the accounts will no longer be redacted. The Scottish Charity Register will also begin displaying more details about each charity’s operations, such as a description of its activities and volunteer numbers.
Charities can prepare for this now by:
- Reviewing the type of personal information included in their accounts – names and images of volunteers and beneficiaries should only be included where appropriate
- Ensuring accounts are accessible, ideally as a PDF document
- Considering the use of typed or digital signatures rather than handwritten ones
- Verifying that all submitted information is accurate and timely
In Summer 2025, the legal changes under the new Act relating to disqualification come into effect. In advance of these changes, OSCR has updated its guidance on automatic disqualification. The guidance includes two significant updates:
- There are additional criteria that will automatically disqualify individuals from serving as a charity trustee or holding a senior management function in a charity. These include convictions for terrorism-related offences or those listed on the sex offenders register.
- Automatic disqualification will now apply to individuals undertaking a senior management function (employees or volunteers) within the charity, in addition to trustees.
Individuals are undertaking a senior management function if their role involves:
- Managing a charity – being responsible for the day-today operation of the charity, including decision making on key operational matters, for which they are directly accountable to the charity trustees
- Controlling a charity’s money – being responsible for a charity’s financial performance, spending, financial policies and controls, reporting either:
- Directly to charity trustees
- To an individual carrying out a senior management function that does not involve control over money
Charities can prepare for these changes now by:
- Reading and becoming familiar with OSCR’s guidance on automatic disqualification
- Reviewing the list of disqualification criteria in Annex 1 to determine if they apply
- Considering whether a waiver application may be appropriate for any individual affected by the changes
- Using the flowchart in Annex 2 of OSCR’s guidance to determine whether undertaken within a charity fall into the definition of a senior management function
