Public Sector

Public sector bodies in Scotland, including local authorities, are responsible for managing a substantial number of charitable trust funds

Over the years many of these trusts have become dormant or inactive. Charitable trusts may become dormant for a variety of reasons; the original purposes may have ceased to exist or have been fulfilled or the terms of the trust may simply be no longer relevant. As a result, it is often difficult to distribute funds in line with the charitable wishes of the original benefactors.

The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 introduced an entirely new system for the regulation of charities and established the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). Trustees of all charitable trusts now have new responsibilities to account for the administration of each individual charitable trust they act as trustees for and to ensure that awards are made regularly for the charitable purposes for which these trusts were initially established. Full compliance with these requirements could prove to be extremely onerous and expensive to administer.

The Act also introduced new responsibilities for trustees to seek consent from OSCR to make certain changes to the constitution of a charity. The Act also sets out a process which allows charities to apply to OSCR for permission to reorganise if their current purposes are deemed to be no longer relevant, useful or appropriate.

The Scottish Community Foundation believes that the introduction of these new regulations provides an opportunity to rationalise existing charitable trust funds administered by public agencies and use the assets released to establish new revitalised community funds that can provide much needed funding to local community groups and voluntary organisations.

For more information, please call our public services development manager Robert Stevenson on 0131 524 0300.