The Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023 (Commencement No. 2, Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2025

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations bring various provisions of the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023 (“the Act”) into force. The Bill for the Act received Royal Assent on 9 August 2023. By virtue of section 21(1), that section, together with sections 20 and 22, came into force on 10 August 2023.

Regulation 2(1), read in conjunction with regulation 2(3) and the table in Part 1 of the schedule, appoints 30 June 2025 for the coming into force of sections 3, 4 (for limited purposes), 5 (for limited purposes), 6 (for limited purposes) and 13 (for remaining purposes) of the Act.

Regulation 2(2), read in conjunction with regulation 2(3) and the table in Part 2 of the schedule, appoints 31 August 2025 for the coming into force of sections 4 (for remaining purposes), 5 (for remaining purposes) and 6 (for remaining purposes) of the Act.

Section 3 (information about charity trustees for OSCR’s use) of the Act amends the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (“the 2005 Act”) to place a duty on the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (“OSCR”) to keep, in a manner it thinks fit, a schedule of all charity trustees. Regulation 3 provides that new section 17(1)(ba) of the 2005 Act (inserted by section 3(2)) will not apply to any change of circumstance that occurs before an answer to a question specified by OSCR is provided to OSCR either through the annual returns process or by virtue of an updating of relevant information via the OSCR Online portal.

Section 4 (disqualification: offences) of the Act amends the 2005 Act to update the list of offences for which a person would be automatically disqualified from acting as a charity trustee. Section 5 (disqualification: other cases) of the Act amends the 2005 Act to further update the disqualification criteria, beyond the expansion relating to criminal offences covered by section 4 of the Act. Section 6 (disqualification: senior management functions) amends the 2005 Act to extend the disqualification rules to individuals holding office or employment with senior management functions in charities. Sections 4, 5 and 6 are commenced on 30 June 2025 for the limited purposes of allowing OSCR to receive, assess and issue notification of waiver regarding applications for waiver relating to the updated list of offences resulting in automatic disqualification (as provided for by these sections) before these sections are fully commenced on 31 August 2025.

Section 13 (recording of charity mergers and treatment of legacies) of the Act inserts Chapter 7A (charity mergers) into the 2005 Act which provides for the recording of charity mergers and the corresponding treatment of legacies. Regulation 4 provides that chapter 7A does not apply to a merger that has been completed before 30 June 2025.