It will be mean greater transparency

Scotland’s charity regulator is informing charities they will need to provide details about trustees from this summer.

Then, starting at the end of 2025, full charity accounts will begin to be publicly available on the Scottish Charity Register.

These changes stem from the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, which strengthens oversight and public trust in the sector. Some provisions, such as OSCR’s expanded inquiry powers, are already in effect.

OSCR will be updating the OSCR online system to help charities relay this information, and said it was working with charities and other people in the sector to make sure these changes are as helpful and easy to use as possible. 

Charities will have to submit the names, address, email, phone and date of birth for each charity trustee.

The first and last name of each charity trustee will be published on the Scottish Charity Register from the end of 2025.

Currently, OSCR publishes accounts on the Scottish Charity Register for charities that meet certain criteria based on legal form and income, and it redacts (or blank out) any personal information about individuals in the accounts.

Charities are required to provide their latest accounts upon request and may choose to share additional financial information on their own platforms. 

However from the end of 2025, every accounts document submitted to OSCR will now be publicly available on the Scottish Charity Register for at least five years.

These documents will be published exactly as received, and OSCR will no longer redact any personal information from these documents prior to publication.

More details are available from the OSCR website.