CHARITY TRUSTEES GO PUBLIC
Introduction
It’s worth highlighting certain aspects of recent charity law reform in respect of:
(1) new requirements for information about charity trustees being submitted to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (“OSCR”) for OSCR’s own internal purposes;
(2) new requirements for charity trustees’ names to be publicly available on the OSCR website; and
(3) new requirements for charity accounts to be publicly available on the OSCR website.
None of these new requirements is operational as yet but (1) is to be operational in the next several weeks and (2) and (3) by the end of this year.
A little is said, in turn, about each.
(1) Information about charity trustees being submitted to OSCR for OSCR’s own internal purposes
What is the current position?
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At present, OSCR only gathers information on trustees at the start of the life of a charity through trustee declarations and afterwards through statements of account submitted annually.
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However, the contact details provided in trustee declarations are not subsequently updated, and the statements of account only provide trustee names but not contact details (charities only have to detail an initial and surname).
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And, at present, OSCR obtains contact details of a “principal contact” (the person OSCR communicates with when it needs to get in touch with the charity) through online annual returns. The principal contact does not have to be one of the trustees – it can also be an employee, accountant or legal adviser. In any event, information can go out-of-date in between annual return submissions.
What is changing?
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The Policy Memorandum for the Bill (now Act) described the intention behind the new requirements as follows:
“… to introduce efficiencies to OSCR’s operations in relation to compliance, inquiries and engagement work to better support its regulation of charities and their trustees, by imposing a duty on OSCR to create and maintain an internal database of trustees containing their personal information and contact details and providing OSCR with a power to gather information for that purpose.”
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OSCR https://www.oscr.org.uk/ is currently updating its OSCR online system to support this new requirement.
What trustee details must be provided?
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Charities will be required to submit the following details for each charity trustee:
- Full name
- Home address
- Email address
- Telephone number
- Date of birth
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OSCR will securely store this information for regulatory purposes and to maintain contact with trustees as needed.
(2) New requirements for charity trustees’ names to appear on the publicly available Scottish Charity Register
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The Policy Memorandum for the Bill (now Act) described the intention behind this requirement as follows:
“… to increase transparency and accountability for charities by imposing duties on OSCR to publish the names of trustees on the Register …”
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A charity or any of its trustees will however be able to apply to OSCR for a dispensation from the name or names of charity trustees being published on the Register where the publication of that information is likely to jeopardise the safety or security of a person or property.
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And OSCR will also be able to grant dispensations on safety or security grounds either to a particular charity or a class of charities. This is intended to cover cases where an exemption is warranted for a type of charity such as all women’s refuge charities.
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From late 2025 the first and last names of each trustee will be published on the Scottish Charity Register (but as noted above, all other personal information on trustees will be for OSCR’s internal use only).
(3) Further requirement: publication of accounts on the Scottish Charity Register
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From the end of 2025 all accounts submitted to OSCR will be published in full on the Scottish Charity Register and without redaction.
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This will include any personal information contained in the documents so charities will want to review the type of personal information included in their accounts and only include names and images of volunteers or beneficiaries where appropriate.
Note: This material is for information purposes only and does not constitute any form of advice or recommendation by us. You should not rely upon it in making any decisions or taking or refraining from taking any action. If you would like us to advise you on any of the matters covered in this material, please contact Lauren Booth: email Lauren@mitchells-roberton.co.uk