About the Scottish Charity Register
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 are 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.
