Charities may be aware that Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) are asking all charities to report Notifiable Events. Whilst there is no legal requirement to report an event, OSCR are keen to encourage charities to report to them when there has been a significant event which may or may not have a negative impact on an individual charity or the wider charity sector.
Types of notifiable events can be as follows:-
- Fraud and theft
- Significant financial loss
- Incidents of abuse or mistreatment of vulnerable beneficiaries
- Not enough charity trustees to make a legal decision
- Charity has been subject to a criminal investigation, or an investigation by another regulator, or agency sanctions have been imposed, or concerns raised by another regulator or agency
- Significant sums of money or other property have been donated to the charity from an unknown or unverified source
- Suspicions that the charity and/or its assets are being used to fund criminal activity (including terrorism)
- A charity trustee is acting whilst disqualified
Charity trustees have a legal responsibility to put the interests of the charity above their own interests; and are collectively responsible for making sure the charity is run responsibly and lawfully. OSCR have also introduced a new online form to make it easier for charities to inform them of the information they need to know.
Charities should familiarise themselves with OSCR's guidance and relevant form which can be found here. If you feel this may be something that you wish to discuss further please feel free to contact our charities team for any additional information.
