The Office of Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has welcomed new legislative proposals that would increase the regulator’s powers to remove charities.
Introduced in Scottish parliament today, the Charities (Regulation and Administration) Bill aims to increase the transparency and accountability of charities to the public.
The proposed legislation would give OSCR new powers to issue positive directions to charities when it has identified a risk to the charity.
It would aim to increase the transparency of Scotland’s 25,000 charities by enabling OSCR to publish the annual accounts for every charity and include the names of all charity trustees in its register.
If the bill is passed through parliament, it would also enable OSCR to remove charities that fail to provide accounts and are unresponsive to the regulator’s communications.
It would also enable OSCR to create a publicly searchable record of removed charity trustees.
Chair of OSCR, Marieke Dwarshuis said: “I’m pleased to see this bill start its progress through the Scottish Parliament. This legislation will enable OSCR to increase public trust in Scotland’s 25,000 charities by increasing transparency around their management and the activities they carry out. It would also enable us to take more effective action against the very small minority of charities who don’t follow the rules.
“I look forward to working with both the Scottish Government and our parliament to ensure the bill meets the needs of the people of Scotland and enables OSCR to regulate even more effectively.”
‘Current charity law is 17-years-old’
The current Charities Act in Scotland was published in 2005. This new legislation would aim to modify certain aspects of the existing law and update them.
Social justice secretary, Shona Robison, said: “Current charity law is now 17-years-old, the charity sector has changed significantly in that time and the legislation needs to be updated to reflect that. Charities have told us that they want these changes to help strengthen existing charity law and update their system of regulation.
“In order to maintain public trust and confidence in this important sector and its regulator in the years ahead, we are taking the required steps to increase transparency and to extend OSCR’s enforcement powers.
“Scotland’s charities raise more than £13bn of income each year and this bill will give the public further transparency as to how that money is used.”
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