Review of charity regulation

For views on whether a review of charity regulation is needed, and if so what the purpose and parameters of a review should be.

A total of 163 responses were received, 80 of which were from organisations and 83 from individuals. 83% respondents agreed that there should be a review of charity regulation. Reasons for supporting a review included increasing confidence in charity leadership, ensuring organisational structures were correct, enabling the provision of clearer guidance and a need for regular reviews to be conducted. Other reasons included a need to strengthen regulation or a need to reduce regulation.

The most common reason for wanting a review was that it has now been 20 years since the original Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 was introduced and a review was felt to be timely. Many of the responses said that the review should be wide-ranging and should not exclude anything.

We commissioned an independent, impartial analysis of the responses to the consultation, including notes collated from nine consultation events. This analysis was published on 25 March 2025.

You can read the report here: Review of charity regulation: consultation analysis - gov.scot.

You can also read the responses (where permission has been given to publish): Published responses for Review of charity regulation - Scottish Government consultations - Citizen Space.

A lot of responses raised the need for changes which can be delivered without needing a review. The Scottish Government remains committed to a review in the longer term, and we want to work with charities to shape that.

We also want to do what we can to make helpful changes to charity regulation now and over the next year we intend to:

1. Bring forward two sets of commencement regulations to fully implement the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, one in the summer and one at the end of 2025. This will enhance accountability and transparency in charities, which is a key finding from the consultation analysis.
    
2. Introduce new Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations in the autumn that will raise the audit income threshold for charities registered in Scotland from £500,000 to £1 million.
    
3. Consult on draft regulations to make improvements for the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations (Removal from Register and Dissolution) Regulations 2011, with a view to introducing amendment regulations before the end of the Parliament. The draft regulations are based on recommendations from an independent working group and substantial stakeholder feedback.
    
4. Convene a working group to examine the challenges that some charities can face when looking to incorporate to a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO).