Scotland gets new charity regulator

Charities in Scotland will now be supervised by The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) which is based in Dundee.

One of its main tasks will be to investigate charities, a job currently undertaken by the Scottish Charities Office which is part of the Crown Office. OSCR will have wide-ranging powers to monitor and supervise the work of charities. It will also be able to take action in cases of misconduct or mismanagement.

Confidence in Scotland's charity laws was undermined following two high profile cases in 2003. Breast Cancer Research had its assets frozen in May after a probe found only £1.5m of £13m raised had actually been donated to charity. Then in November the Court of Session moved to have directors of the Moonbeams children's cancer charity permanently removed after they failed to answer allegations which surfaced that just £70,000 of almost £3m raised went to sufferers and their families.

Supervision programme

OSCR will maintain an up to date index of Scottish charities, provide a central source of information, develop a monitoring and supervision programme, and investigate cases of misconduct or mismanagement.

Communities Minister Margaret Curran said: "I am committed to putting in place a more effective and comprehensive regulatory regime for charities in Scotland ”.

"It is essential we enable charities to operate in a climate of trust and respect by providing firm and fair regulation in which the public has confidence ."

Regulation of charities in Northern Ireland

The existing legislation governing charities in Northern Ireland is widely felt to be out of date and unable to effectively regulate modern charitable activities. The Department for Social Development’s Voluntary Activity Unit recently commissioned a survey and a ‘scoping exercise’ to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the legislation, and to compare it to that of neighbouring jurisdictions.

An advisory group of interested parties, including NICVA’s Chief Executive Officer, Seamus McAleavey, has been invited by the Department to assist in a review of Northern Ireland charity law in the public sphere in 2004.

NICVA, in consultation with the community and voluntary sector, has long recognised the need for better regulation of charities in Northern Ireland. Consultations have shown that better regulation should:

• provide a mechanism capable of investigating fraudulent behaviour and/or mismanagement of charity assets
• carry out ‘public benefit’ tests for all charities and ongoing monitoring of existing charities
• be resourced by government with funding which is additional to that allocated to the voluntary, community and charity sector
• educate and support the sector on good governance, compliance with laws and accountability
• pomote public trust and confidence in charities.