Legislation was laid in the Scottish Parliament on the 23rd February 2024 to bring into effect some of the changes contained in the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023.

These changes will take effect on 1 April 2024. OSCR has been working hard to make sure charities and the public get maximum benefit from the improvements these changes will bring. The following link provides an update on the progress, what the changes are and what it means for charities: https://www.oscr.org.uk/news/coming-soon-changes-to-charity-law-and-the-way-we-regulate/

Improvements to the online annual return process

All charities registered in Scotland have a legal duty to provide OSCR with an annual report and accounts every year. Most charities do this by submitting an online annual return through OSCR Online. OSCR have recently made some improvements to the online annual return process. There are three main updates:

· New information boxes will provide you with support and guidance while completing your online annual return.

· Questions have been added to gather more relevant information about charities in Scotland. In the future, they plan to publish more of this information on the Scottish Charity Register.

· an email will be sent with feedback from your online annual return. This will be sent to the principal contact and will contain specific guidance for your charity.

The following link provides more information and a short video detailing the improvements: https://scvo.scot/support/running-your-organisation/legislation/new-charity-law