Organisations wishing to register as a charity with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) face a delay of several months in their applications, meaning they could miss out on funding opportunities and would be unable to deliver vital services.
Voluntary organisations have said a delay will have a serious impact on smaller groups and have called on the government to change the plans to ensure the new regulator is able to carry out its main function immediately.
“The ambitions of some community groups will be thwarted,” said SCVO chief executive Martin Sime. “If their application for charity status can’t be considered for several months, they won’t be able to apply for funds from, for example, charitable trusts or foundations. The voluntary sector campaigned for many years for charity regulation but this kind of bureaucratic delay will impede voluntary action rather than make it easier”
The delay was revealed this week when the Scottish Executive published an implementation plan for the recent Charities Act, under which the powers to grant charitable status have been moved from HM Revenue and Customs to OSCR.
Under the new law, an organisation will be tested to prove that its work is providing a benefit to the public. OSCR is expected to begin work on creating the public benefit test after it is formed next year and will therefore not be able to process applications until after these regulations have been created.
Edinburgh Voluntary Organisation Council (EVOC), which provides advice to organisations seeking charitable status, said its members are “very concerned’ about the planned changes and what the public benefit test will involve.
Jeff Frew, services operations manager at EVOC, said: “A lot of groups who are going to apply are worried and don’t know what they are going to have to do. OSCR are not providing the answers.
“If the details of the public benefit test are not ready by April then obviously that is a real concern and will have a serious impact on small organisations. Not being able to apply for charitable status will affect their ability to deliver services, to become fully operational and to apply for funding.”
Martha Wardrop, Policy Officer for Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector echoed EVOC’s concerns. She said. “New organisations seeking charitable status will have an unacceptably long wait for a decision, and that is obviously a huge concern. It will cause major difficulties for new services and developments, not least in how they go about acquiring funding.
“The sector needs further information, as a matter of urgency, on what plans OSCR has to get the decision process back on track”
SCVO is calling for the Scottish Executive to urgently review the situation to avert a delay.
“Most charities favour the forthcoming public benefit test,” said Mr Sime, “but will not favour a delay in its name. We believe Scottish Ministers should ensure that it remains possible to be granted charitable status in Scotland until such time as OSCR is in a position to properly fulfil this function.”
A Scottish Executive explanation of its implementation plan was sent exclusively to TFN. It said that the public benefit test will not be in place before April: “It will be for the new OSCR board to carry out the statutory consultation that is required on this guidance. Therefore, when OSCR takes over from HM Revenue and Customs for granting charity status in April 2006, new applications to join the charity register may initially take several months to be processed.”
Currently, several new charities register every week. Under the current system there has always been uncertainty about how many charities exist and are active in Scotland.
OSCR is currently compiling an index of charities in Scotland. Since May this year, just under 17,000 have responded.