Priority updates for review
Lloyds TSB Foundation
Latest: Lloyds TSB Foundation has publicly denounced attempts by the Lloyds TSB Group to remove its independence and reduce its covenant, and because of the dispute the Lloyds Banking Group have confirmed that they will end their covenant with the Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland, and have served it with a notice to terminate this within nine years. It will establish in its place the Bank of Scotland Foundation. It has also undermined the independence of the foundation by refusing to approve a unanimous vote by trustees to reappoint the chair. Gordon Brown responded to the petition initiated by SCVO on the No. 10 website in support of the Foundation, (which has over 2,700 signatures), saying he has received assurances from the Lloyds Banking Group that the four foundations in the UK will receive the full value of the existing agreement over the next nine years, and keep their independent status. Lucy McTernan, SCVO has said that these assurances are “not worth the paper they are written on”.
Closing date for petition signatures 27th April 2010.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/LloydsFoundation/
Related information: The Local Government and Communities Committee considered a petition by the Lighthouse Foundation (10th Feb), calling on the Scottish Government to ensure that funding provided to charities by the banking and other private funding sectors is maintained, and asked SCVO for its response. It took evidence from grant providers Scottish Community Foundation and Gannochy Trust, who reported that philanthropy has not suffered through the recession, but corporate giving has, and the impact will hit in about a years time. (Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland had been invited but the representative was unwell.)
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/lgc/or-10/lg10-0502.htm
Financial Crisis and Economic Downturn
Latest: The Scottish Government has commissioned an Independent Budget Enquiry to assess the Budget situation for Scotland, One of the three Enquiry Commissioners is Sir Neil Mackintosh, a former convenor of SCVO. The Commission has invited SCVO amongst other organisations for an initial submission of evidence.
The Scottish Parliament Finance Committee is holding an inquiry into how the public sector can ensure the efficient delivery of public services within a period of tightening public expenditure. This is part of a strategic budget scrutiny phase to take place between April and June this year, to help identify priorities for the 2011-12 draft budget. Closing date 26 March.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/finance/budget/bsp_call.htm
There has been much recent media coverage of proposed cuts in local government funding, including for the voluntary sector. EVOC have reported that 1 in 3 voluntary organisations in Edinburgh fear they might not survive the next year. SCVO has responded to the media and in letters to John Swinney and Edinburgh Council Leader Jenny Dawes.
http://www.scvo.org.uk/scvo/NewsAndEvents/LatestNews.aspx%20and
Equalities and Human Rights
Latest: The Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee is conducting an inquiry in connection with the Strategic Budget Phase that the Finance Committee is working on. SCVO has been invited to give oral evidence at the hearing on 20 April, focusing on the question of ‘How do we ensure that the provision of public services aimed at equality groups is adequately maintained during a period of tightening public expenditure?’ Liz Rowlett from the policy committee has agreed to attend on behalf of SCVO. We are coordinating preparatory meetings with a number of equality groups to gather evidence from across the sector.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/equal/Budget%20process%202011-12/BSP.htm
We have also been invited to give evidence before the Equal Opportunities Committee in relation to its inquiry into migration and trafficking, and will be working with sector groups in preparation for both written and oral submissions.
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/equal/inquiries/migration/migration.htm
Charity Tax and VAT
Gift aid
The Chancellor did not respond to the Government consultation on Gift Aid through the UK Pre-Budget Report (9th December) but has established a forum to be attended by the Charity Tax Group and other voluntary sector representatives. The main points to emerge from its first meeting in February were:
- This is an informal working group and not a formal consultation group. Others in the sector will be able to have an input and join any specialist sub-groups that are established.
- The group will make recommendations to Ministers by 30 September 2010 on “structural and process improvements to Gift Aid, payroll giving and gifts of shares and land”.
- Representatives from arts / education bodies argued that the introduction of a composite rate would deter donors and some had conducted surveys which backed this up.
- The needs of two very different constituencies emerged: normal donors who give a large volume of smaller donations, and would probably be happy with a composite rate relief; and the major donors who take the tax relief into account in assessing the amount they are prepared to give.
- Treasury will be producing some ideas for discussion in the next meeting in June, a paper for approval by the group in September and there will be a further meeting in November.
All documents relating to the Gift Aid Forum, including the minutes of the first meeting with the revised terms of reference can be found on the Treasury’s website:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_gift_aid_forum.htm
The Charity Tax Group, of which SCVO is a member, has produced discussion papers outlining proposals for simplifying the Gift Aid system, including a system for online claims, and for creating a central Gift Aid database and Gift Aid declaration cards.
News from European Charities’ Committee on VAT (ECCVAT)
Background:
ECCVAT is the European Charities’ Committee on Value-Added Tax – a group of charities that has come together to research the impact of VAT and other taxes on the work of NGOs and to make representations to the EU institutions on behalf of the sector. KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services.
Copenhagen Economics is a group of expert economic consultants, tasked by the European Commission to quantify the economic significance and impact of the social exemptions as they currently apply across Europe and understand the VAT rules and treatment of public bodies and not for profits.
Copenhagen Economics and KPMG are designing a questionnaire to be circulated to KPMG offices across Europe to try and get a clearer picture of the VAT treatment of public bodies etc and the practical application of the social exemptions. Once this exercise is completed they will use an economic modelling tool to see the impact of different scenarios on input and output VAT taking into account national practices.
The ECCVAT working group decided in January to analyse national legislations on the VAT treatment of charities, to inform the research and highlight best practice. They met with the Copenhagen Economics on 5th March to highlight concerns of the charitable sector, eg that:
- Irrecoverable VAT is a lasting impediment on the work of charities through its direct and indirect (administrative burden of apportionment) costs;
- The current system leads to unfair competition in tendering for contracts;
- Need to streamline and modernise the exemption system;
- There are various options to be investigated: total taxation, national refund schemes, minimum common denominator of what charities are entitled to and allow Member States to go further as long as it does not cause distortion of competition.
- They need more information about the sector and the problem it faces.
Copenhagen Economics will be meeting with the European Commission for a progress report at the end of April, and will meet with ECCVAT before then in order to go through the results of the ECCVAT working group questionnaire.
Get Involved
SCVO is currently working on an exciting new campaign to inspire more people to become involved with the voluntary sector in more ways throughout their lifetime, from paid work to one off fundraising events, volunteering and campaigning.
Since the official launch of The Get Involved campaign at the Gathering last month, organisations across Scotland are linking-up to the website to promote the many ways that people can get involved with them. Get involved provides an ideal platform to promote your events, opportunities and stories to a growing network.
So far:
- 52 organisations have signed-up (have a site profile)
- 81 individuals have signed up the websites e-news bulletins
- 71 individuals have become a fan on facebook
- 30 individuals follow Get Involved tweets
Make sure your organisation taps into the Get Involved network
http://www.getinvolved.org.uk/
Join our growing facebook network; http://www.facebook.com/gettinvolved
Civil Society Summit
The Civil Society Summit was a joint conference for civil society organised by SCVO on February 18th with nine institutional partners from across civil society movements.
The event was very well attended, with over 160 delegates from across civil society, discussing key questions around potential action to tackle the global societal crises of climate change, poverty, equalities and politics.
Key outcomes of the event were:
- A unanimous view that the global crises above were indeed crises, that politicians and the market did not have a solution, and that civil society had a leadership role to play in tackling this.
- A reappraisal of what we value in society – happiness, well-being rather than simply economic growth
- Support for key initiatives such as the Robin Hood (Tobin) tax, alternative measures of progress to GDP, the concept of ‘peak oil’ and need to tackle our rising energy consumption, challenging the encroaching ‘zipping up’ of civil society campaigning activities by the State, taking back some of the power we have given to politicians.
- A question of how we might preserve the diversity of civil society movements while presenting a united front and distinct offering on these issues
The ten organising partners of this event met on 9th March to discuss plans for future action and suggested the following:
Challenges:
- How to fuse the different campaigns civil society is running into a single movement?
- How to communicate the scope of the challenge to the mainstream media which remains hostile to some of these agendas
- How to ensure all voices are heard in our movements, that the language we use is accessible both technically and emotionally and that we learn from other countries particularly the South
- While it is clear that we share a view on the outcomes we want to achieve there are division lines within civil society on approach.
Proposed actions:
- A description of who we are and what we are trying to achieve
- A brand which people and organisations from across civil society can identify with.
- A wrapper, potentially in the form of a website, to form a focal point of information for this initiative.
- A shared statement – with a national outlet which people and organisations from across civil society can sign-up to. STUC has agreed to lead on this.
Other Updates
Equality Bill update
The UK Equality Bill completed its report stage in the House of Lords on the 2nd March. Amendments agreed include:
- The power to add ‘caste’ as an aspect of race
- The duty to make reasonable adjustments so that provision of information is in an accessible format
- Discrimination on grounds of pregnancy and maternity in schools to be prohibited
- A duty on political parties to provide information on the diversity of their candidates
- A power to allow civil partnership ceremonies in religious buildings.
Many other recent changes involved disability, eg: requiring schools to provide auxiliary aids for disabled pupils; making clear that costs of reasonable adjustments cannot generally be passed on to a disabled person; making it unlawful to ask job applicants disability and health questions before job offers (except in prescribed circumstances); strengthening the protection for disabled people taking or being awarded qualifications; making clear the need to take account of disabled people’s disabilities in the public sector Equality Duty, and increasing the potential number of wheelchair-accessible taxis.
The third reading – a final chance for the Lords to amend the Bill – is yet to be scheduled.
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2008-09/equality.html
Public Services Reform Bill
Latest: Charity law amendments tabled by Fergus Ewing, Minister for Community Safety, have been passed. These relate to the consultation held last summer on minor amendments to the Scottish Charities Act, and will require charities to include information concerning their charitable status on their websites, and will mean that a person can be disqualified from being a charity trustee in future, even while they are no longer in management or control of a charity (currently only those still in management or control of a charity can be disqualified).
See separate Charity law updates paper. Stage 2 finishes 12th March.
The Finance Committees Stage 2 consideration of the Bill began on 26th January. The Stage 1 debate took place on the 7th January. SCVO issued a briefing for the debate stressing that effective public service reform would need to encourage greater use of the voluntary sector in the delivery and design of public service, a point taken up by MSPs during the debate.
Freedom of Information
Latest: The Scottish Government is consulting some specific organisations about extending the reach of FOI to them.
In December 2009 the Scottish Government announced that it plans to consult on extending Freedom of Information legislation in Scotland to contractors who: build and maintain hospitals and schools; run privately managed prisons, prisoner escort and court custody services; and operate and maintain trunk roads. Also to The Glasgow Housing Association, The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, and bodies used by local authorities to provide leisure, culture and sport services.
In late 2008, the Scottish Government consulted on proposals to extend the FOI Act in Scotland. SCVO’s response echoed the strong support of the sector for the aims of FOI, while raising some concerns about dividing up the sector, creating inequalities of rights, additional red tape and cost, and risk of vexatious requests draining scarce resources.
See also the Scottish Government’s response to the 2008 discussion paper
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/FOI/Coverage
Human Rights
We remain focused on supporting the sector to increase its awareness of human rights and the practical application of a human rights based approach to the work of the sector, both internally and in relation to service provision. In particular, we are working on plans to engage the sector with different international covenants (e.g. ECOSOC and ICERD). We attended the first two meetings of the fledgling Scottish Human Rights Consortium, an informal group of 50 voluntary sector organisations working to promote human rights in Scotland. The Consortium is looking at drafting an Action Plan to present to the Scottish Government. The Plan refer to the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee and highlight areas where the Scottish Government needs to take specific action to address the concerns of the Committee and bring Scotland into line with its obligations under the Covenant.
At the Gathering in February, SCVO held an event looking at the recent experience of children’s charities in Scotland who lobbied the Scottish Government to commit to an action plan in relation to its responsibilities under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We explored ways in which that action plan – ‘Do the Right Thing’ – can be used as a model for similar work on the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The Scottish Human Rights Commission is currently embarked on a mapping exercise to explore and identify the major human rights issues in Scotland. SCVO policy staff attended a day long seminar with other sector experts to feed into the Commission’s design and planning of this latest research project.
Third Sector Skills and Workforce Development Strategy
Latest: The key third sector strategic partners and the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils, with Scottish Government support, have now established a Third Sector Skills Partnership to lead, oversee and manage the implementation of five key priority areas for strategic skills development in the third sector. This follows from the Scottish Government’s Skills Strategy: “Skills for Scotland” and its “Enterprising Third Sector Action Plan” which outlines Strategic Partnerships with SCVO and other third sector partners. Recruitment is now under way for a short-term post of Project Director and Chair to work with the Partnership. The aims will be to facilitate, influence and encourage co-operation and collaboration between all partners to drive forward and implement the Work Plan.
The SCVO Skills Conference: Moving Forward into 2010 was held in Edinburgh on 3 December in order to give the wider sector another opportunity to shape the main priorities for skills development in years to come.
Two skills events were held at The Gathering to look at a proposed strategy for Student Internships and Opportunities for Development support for Third Sector Organisations from Sector Skills Councils. Reports on all these events are posted on the SCVO website.
http://www.scvo.org.uk/skillsandworkforce
Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill
Latest: SCVO welcomed in December an announcement by Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill MSP, that he will introduce the necessary amendments to protect the sector from having to apply for a license to stage an event. Stage 2 began on the 2nd March.
National Conversation and Calman Commission
Latest: The UK government has asked HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to set up a panel of advisers to help implement the hand over of more tax powers to Scotland – part of the recommendations from the Calman Commission, and specifically to work out how to give Scotland control of 10p of the basic rate of income tax.
The Referendum Bill has been published as a draft Bill, for public consultation over a nine week period. The first ballot paper would offer a vote for or against more powers for the Scottish Parliament; a second ballot paper, would ask voters to agree or disagree to an extension of powers that would “enable independence to be achieved”. Publishing the proposals in a draft bill means that they will not be considered by MSPs until after the UK general election.
Dormant Bank Accounts
There has been some delay at the Westminster end in establishing a UK reclaim fund and so the order setting out Scottish Government priorities for the fund has yet to be published. It is expected that a draft order will be debated in the Scottish Parliament, under the affirmative procedure. Plans for a stakeholder meeting with our sector have been dropped by the Scottish Government, at least for the time being.
Voluntary sector emergency response research
The Red Cross has been commissioned by the Scottish Government to research the extent and potential of Scottish voluntary sector involvement in emergency response and recovery. We believe this will be a growing area of importance given the nature of our sector’s embeddedness and the trust that voluntary organisations hold within communities.
They have issued a questionnaire for completion by 31st March and SCVO is helping to publicise this to the sector.
http://surveys.redcross.org.uk/s/Sc37ucIi5GcbKJH
Policy Committee is requested to note these updates
Martin Sime Jill Flye
Chief Executive Policy Officer
Tags: charity tax, civil society, criminal justice, equalities, freedom of information, get involved, Lloyds TSB, public service delivery, third sector skills