Scottish Charities accounts

Howard Lake | 25 July 2009 | Blogs

• Tagged with:
• funding
• Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator
• Prospect research
• Scotland

A recent article in Third Sector magazine revealed that many Scottish charities were unaware of their duty to provide a copy of their annual accounts to members of the public. The research was undertaken by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, and only 75 of the 545 charities provided the documents, as required by law.

I suspect that the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) register is an underused resource, and it is not surprising given how difficult it can be to obtain copies of the accounts (and constitution). During 2009, the OSCR will be reviewing the information supplied to it by charities and how the OSCR uses this information. See my blog dated 20th July 2009, if you are interested in taking part in the review.

Here is a word of advice if you do want to obtain a copy of the accounts and constitution from a charity registered with the OSCR. Be sure to quote the wording used on the OSCR website and request these documents from the charity “under s.23 (1) (a) and (b) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005”.

Good luck

Finbar Cullen
ResearchPlus

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.