It also showed a small rise in whistleblowing complaints
The Scottish charity regulator reported a slight increase in incident reports about charities in 2024/25.
As revealed by its latest annual report and accounts, published this week, OSCR received 568 reports last year, up from 527 in the previous year.
The accounts show OSCR received 13 whistleblowing reports in 2024/25, up from 10 in 2023/24.
The regulator received 850 new applications for charitable status, up from 770 in 2023/24.
Of these new applications, 820 were completed within six months of receipt.
The regulator, which has laid the report before the Scottish Parliament, said the report details “a year of significant progress in strengthening Scotland’s charity sector, improving transparency, and implementing new regulatory powers.”
Key achievements in 2024–25 it highlighted include the use of enhanced regulatory powers being used to remove 492 defaulting charities from the register and to support a further 121 previously defaulting charities to meet their reporting obligations.
It said the launch of a refreshed, user-friendly website has made it easier for the public to access information about Scotland’s 25,000 charities, and for charities to understand their regulatory obligations.
OSCR will begin to publish all charity accounts and names of charity trustees in early 2026.
The regulator said it hasinvested significant resources in engaging with charities to highlight and explain recent changes in Scottish charity law, particularly around new trustee disqualification criteria and reporting requirements.
It also worked with the Revitalising Trusts Project to release approximately £3.3 million in dormant charitable assets back into the sector.
The regulator also said it met or exceeded most of its ambitious performance targets.
This included facilitating a reduction in in the number of charities who were not submitting an annual return.
OSCR operated within a revenue budget of £3.639m in the past financial year, with a small deficit covered by the Scottish Government due to exceptional legal costs arising from complex regulatory cases.
This is understood to have been accrued as part of an inquiry into substance abuse rehabilitation charity, The Jericho Benedictine Society.
The regulator’s accounts say: “The costs of this work exceeded our legal budget, and we were required to seek an undertaking from the Scottish Government to meeting these under the terms of our framework agreement.
“This is the first time that we have been required to invoke this support and is reflective of the increasing complexity of our inquiry activities which we are more frequently finding require specialist professional input."
Publishing the report, OSCR chair Marieke Dwarshuis said: "As regulator for all of Scotland’s charities, OSCR has a unique understanding of the value and significant role which charities play in our society and of the scale and diversity of the sector.
“Given the global uncertainties and economic pressures over the last year, I want to acknowledge the support, security and services which Scotland’s charities have provided to a huge number of beneficiaries, and to recognise the commitment and work of charity trustees, staff and volunteers in Scotland who continue to make this happen in what are also very challenging circumstances for charities themselves."
