The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations has rejected extending the remit of the Fundraising Regulator to Scotland, instead recommending that greater responsibility for regulating fundraising be placed on charities themselves.
In a report published today after months of consultation with the Scottish sector and public, SCVO has formally recommended that the Scottish government reject the establishment of the Fundraising Regulator in Scotland.
In February 2016, a working group on fundraising in Scotland, assembled by SCVO at the bequest of the Scottish government, recommended a “Scottish solution” to fundraising regulation that was separate from the rest of the UK.
SCVO subsequently opened the recommendations – which identified three possible solutions, including adopting a UK-wide Fundraising Regulator; replacing the FRSB with a Scottish Fundraising Regulator, or having no intermediary - to a wider consultation with the sector and public.
Over 500 people and organisations responded to the consultation, while a further 23 organisations chose to make “formal submissions”. SCVO also held 17 round-table events through local branches across Scotland and Ipsos Mori was commissioned to perform three ‘focus groups’ with the public.
The resulting consultation report showed that both the sector and public overwhelmingly rejected joining the UK-wide remit of the Fundraising Regulator.
Instead, the consultation has called for charities themselves to have greater responsibility for self-regulation, whilst OSCR will take on an enhanced “ombudsman-style role” supplemented by an “independent panel” which will set the Code of Fundraising Practice in Scotland.
According to John Downie, director of public affairs at SCVO, 79 per cent of respondents to the consultation “advocated for a ‘Scottish solution’. The remaining 21 per cent who opted for a UK-wide Fundraising Regulator were mostly cross-border charities”.
Downie said that he will approach a “well-respected lawyer who knows the charity sector and is also a data protection expert”, to chair the independent panel tomorrow.
He said that there will be a “small implementation group who will now take forward these recommendations”, which will come from the within the wider, 12 person strong working group. He said it hopes to have everything in place “within the next three months”.
He also said that SCVO will have a “separate phone line set up in Scotland to respond to charity fundraising complaints as well as a website, in order to give people a digital option”, that will be ready to launch next week, to coincide with the launch of the Fundraising Regulator.
The report also made a number of “following recommendations”, including calling for a “Scottish representative” to sit on the board of the Fundraising Regulator; that the “independent panel and OSCR” would work in concert to “define and promote a more comprehensive but proportionate fundraising complaints system for charities”; and that the independent panel should report to the Scottish government on an annual basis.
Downie said that the Fundraising Regulator was “receptive to the idea of a Scottish representative on its board” and, indeed, to the entire report.
The report said that due to a “lack of detail available” about the proposed Fundraising Preference Service it was “very difficult for participants in the consultation to have a clear opinion as to the benefit” of adopting it.
The sector said that while it “understands the attractiveness” of the concept for donors and the government, it was “not convinced that it offers anything over the Telephone Preference Service and Mailing Preference Service”.
Angela Constance, cabinet secretary for communities, social security and equalities, said: “The Scottish Government welcomes this report. The extensive consultation that has been carried out indicates the clear support to continue with self-regulation of charity fundraising.
“What is needed is a more robust approach which is easier for everyone to understand and encourages charities to adhere to good fundraising practice which is why we welcome the proposal to introduce a new online and phone complaints approach so that everyone in Scotland knows who to contact and be informed of what to do if they have a complaint about charity.
"We will consider and respond to the rest of the recommendations in due course.”
David Robb, chief executive of OSCR, said: “We are pleased to have contributed to the new approach being announced today and look forward to our developing role set out in the report. Our experience is that charities generally are well run, but this new framework will support the public’s continuing confidence in charities and their work.”
Spokesmen for both the IoF Scotland and the Fundraising Regulator welcomed the report.
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