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   Bob, the fearless bee

Scotland & Northern Ireland

WE WANT TO COVER CHARITIES from Scotland and Northern Ireland but we cannot for several reasons. The Scottish charity regulator does not have downloadable Annual Reports for each charity, a facility we need to do our work. Northern Ireland, at the moment, doesn't even have a regulator.  Until these things change, here are some useful details and links:

Scotland
Your charity regulator is called the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). It was created under the 2005 Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act. It has an index of every registered Scottish charity (around 21,000 according to the website): The Scottish Charity Index.

The index displays the charity’s address and its stated object, purposes, activities and beneficiaries.  It also displays details of the charity’s financial year from 2005 onwards including annual income and date the Annual Report was sent to OSCR.  It is a good website with a lot of helpful information but unfortunately OSCR has chosen not to put downloadable Annual Reports on the site, unlike the Charity Commission (England and Wales). OSCR tells us it is not one ‘of our statutory functions or something that we are resourced to do’.

You still have the right to view a charity’s latest Annual Report, but you have to contact it directly.  Contacting the largest Scottish charities in order for them to send us their latest Annual Report is not practical for them or for us. So for now, we are sticking to England and Wales.

Interestingly, OSCR registers your every single charity in Scotland, including those with very small incomes. The Charity Commission doesn’t do this; from April 2007, charities with an income of £5000 or under, don’t have to register.

Northern Ireland
The situation in Northern Ireland is very different. The Province still doesn’t have its own charity regulator, unlike the rest of the UK, and you cannot ‘register’ a charity in the same way. There are plans in the Northern Ireland Executive to introduce a regulator soon. It is hoped to introduce legislation autumn 2007, and have a regulator in place by 2008. So watch this space.

At the moment, all you need to do to set up a charity in Northern Ireland is to contact the Inland Revenue and apply for charitable status for tax purposes.  A letter from the Inland Revenue then granting charitable status for tax purposes is the only proof needed that you are a charity….ummm, and that’s just about it.

The Executive department responsible for charities is the ‘Voluntary and Community’ section of the Social Development department.  If you want to find out about forthcoming legislation on charities in Northern Ireland, or when a regulator will be set up, then contact these guys. In 2004, they published a helpful guide to setting up a charity in Northern Ireland, which is still applicable today. It’s available here (PDF), and can also be downloaded from their website. 

The Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA) is a useful website. It is the umbrella organisation of charitable activities in Northern Ireland.  It conducts research and advices on governance and fundraising, but it doesn’t have any regulatory power

And if you need to double-check…
HM Revenue & Customs should be able to confirm whether or not an organisation Scotland or Northern Ireland qualifies as a charity. Phone 0845 302 0203 (choose option 1).