Charity Accounts and Trustees
Important Changes Ahead: What Charity Trustees Need to Know
If you’re a trustee of a Scottish charity, there are a couple of important changes coming your way later this year, thanks to the new Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023. OSCR (Scotland’s charity regulator) has announced when two key parts of the Act will kick in—and it’s time to start getting ready.
What’s Changing?
- Trustee Information Collection & Publication
Starting in summer 2025, OSCR will begin collecting more detailed information about all charity trustees in Scotland, including:
- Your name
- Home address
- Email address
- Phone number
- Date of birth
Now, before you panic—only your name will be made public, and that won’t happen until the end of 2025 (exact date still TBC). The rest of the info will be kept on file by OSCR but won’t be visible to the public.
2. Accounts Will No Longer Be Redacted
At the moment, when OSCR publishes charity accounts, they remove personal names. That’s about to change. From late 2025, OSCR will publish all charity accounts in full—without removing any names. If someone is mentioned in your accounts, their name will now be visible online.
Why Are These Changes Happening
OSCR says it’s all about improving transparency and building public trust in charities. The idea is that by showing who’s behind the scenes, the public can feel more confident about how charities are being run.
What Does This Mean for You?
If your charity is a company or registered elsewhere in the UK, this won’t feel like a big change. Companies House and the Charity Commission already make this kind of info public.
But if you’re with a smaller, unincorporated charity, this is a major shift. Until now, trustees could stay out of the spotlight if they preferred. That’s no longer an option—unless you apply for an exemption (which you can do if publishing your name might put you at risk). We don’t yet know how those exemptions will be handled, so it’s something to keep an eye on.
What Should You Be Doing Now?
There’s no need to do anything just yet, but now’s a good time to start preparing. Here’s what we suggest:
- Talk to your fellow trustees about these changes—make sure everyone’s aware.
- Nominate someone to be responsible for gathering the required trustee information and reporting it to OSCR when the time comes.
More detailed guidance will be shared by OSCR in due course, but for now, just make sure this is on your radar.
For more info, head over to OSCR’s update on the new charity regulations.