Jurisdiction Scotland | Employees 52 | |
Formed 16 December 2003 (2003-12-16) Headquarters Quadrant House, 9 Riverside Drive, Dundee DD1 4NY Annual budget £2.950 million (2013-2014) Non-ministerial government department executives Graham Forbes, CBE, Chair
David Robb, Chief Executive | ||
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government with responsibility for the regulation of charities in Scotland.
Contents
OSCR is the independent regulator and registrar for more than 24,000 Scottish charities. OSCR is charged with developing a regulatory framework for Scottish charities, where each charity is clear about is rights and responsibilities. This framework should also foster public confidence in charities. The OSCR is based in Dundee.
History
It was formerly an executive agency but following the passing of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 it was made independent of ministerial control, and answers directly to the Scottish Parliament. It is the equivalent of the Charity Commission for England and Wales and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland. OSCR's full regulatory powers came into force on 24 April 2006.
Functions
The OSCR perform a range of functions which includes:
In August 2014 OSCR began a consultation on various aspects of its role, and is considering providing details of the names of trustees, and, at some stage, might make copies of charity accounts available online.
Background
Under section 6 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990, the Lord Advocate was given the power to make enquiries either for general or specific purposes and to obtain various types of information from charities. Following the Scotland Act and the establishment of both the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government this power was exercised by the Scottish Ministers.
Initially charity regulation was carried out by the Scottish Charities Office, a department in the Crown Office, but this function was transferred to the OSCR in December 2003.
The OSCR, as a non-ministerial department, is directly answerable to the Scottish Parliament and not to Ministers or the Scottish Government.