Jewish Charity Bot: New page: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, the Scottish charity regulator (sources: OSCR, legislation.gov.uk, Scottish Government)

2026-10-22T15:09:10Z

New page: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, the Scottish charity regulator (sources: OSCR, legislation.gov.uk, Scottish Government)

New page

{{short description|'''Independent regulator and registrar of charities in Scotland'''}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR)
| logo = OSCR logo.png
| image_size = 220px
| type = Non-ministerial office in the Scottish Administration
| founded = {{Start date|2003}}
| headquarters = 2nd Floor, Quadrant House, 9 Riverside Drive, Dundee DD1 4NY
| location = Dundee, Scotland
| area_served = Scotland
| services = Determining charitable status; keeping the Scottish Charity Register; monitoring compliance; investigating misconduct
| key_people = Quentin Fisher (interim Chief Executive)<ref name="GovScotNMO">Scottish Government, [https://www.gov.scot/publications/national-public-bodies-directory/pages/non-ministerial-offices/ National public bodies: directory – Non-ministerial offices] ''gov.scot'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref>
| website = [https://www.oscr.org.uk/ oscr.org.uk]
}}
The '''Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator''' ('''OSCR''') is the independent regulator and registrar of charities in Scotland. It describes itself as regulating "over 25,000 Scottish charities including community groups, religious charities, schools, universities, grant-giving charities and major care providers", all of which must be registered with it and meet annual reporting requirements.<ref name="OSCRAbout">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/about-oscr/ About OSCR] ''OSCR'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> Based in Dundee, it is a non-ministerial office independent of the Scottish Government and reports directly to the [[Scottish Parliament]] every year.<ref name="OSCRAbout" />

OSCR's statutory functions are set out in the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005. Its counterparts elsewhere in the United Kingdom are the [[Charity Commission for England and Wales]] and the [[Charity Commission for Northern Ireland]].<ref name="DfCIntro">Department for Communities, [https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/articles/introduction-regulation-charities-northern-ireland Introduction to the regulation of charities in Northern Ireland] ''Department for Communities'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref>

== History and legal basis ==
The Scottish Government's directory of public bodies gives OSCR's date of establishment as 2003.<ref name="GovScotNMO" /> The Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 created "an office to be known as the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator" and a body corporate, the Scottish Charity Regulator, to hold it.<ref name="Act2005">[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2005/10/data.pdf Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005] (asp 10), section 1 ''legislation.gov.uk'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> A 2006 order made under the Scotland Act 1998 provided that the office is to be regarded as one of the offices in the Scottish Administration which are not ministerial offices.<ref name="EM2006">Scotland Office, [https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/242/pdfs/uksiem_20060242_en.pdf Explanatory memorandum to the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2006] (SI 2006/242) ''legislation.gov.uk'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref><ref name="Framework2024">Scottish Government and Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/media/pemp12av/scottish-government-and-oscr-framework-document-2024.pdf Framework document] ''OSCR'', 2024, accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> According to OSCR's review of 2006, its new Board was appointed in January 2006 and it took up its regulatory powers in April 2006, when the new Scottish Charity Register was established.<ref name="Review2006">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/media/2007/2015-09-11-oscrs-annual-review-2006.pdf Annual review 2006] ''OSCR'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref>

Under section 1(5) of the 2005 Act, OSCR's general functions are to determine whether bodies are charities, to keep a public register of charities, to encourage, facilitate and monitor compliance with the Act, and to identify and investigate apparent misconduct in the administration of charities.<ref name="Act2005" />

=== Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023 ===
OSCR announced on 19 February 2026 that, as the final set of changes under the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, from 9 March 2026 the first and last names of charity trustees would be shown on each charity's register entry, and annual reports and accounts submitted from that date would be published in full without redactions. The register would also show a description of the charity's work in its own words and the numbers of staff, trustees and volunteers.<ref name="OSCR2026">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/news/more-information-to-appear-on-the-scottish-charity-register-from-9-march-2026/ More information to appear on the Scottish Charity Register from 9 March 2026] ''OSCR'', 19 February 2026, accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> Only trustee names are published; some exemptions may apply.<ref name="OSCR2026" />

== Scottish Charity Register ==
OSCR publishes downloadable files of the current register and of former (removed) charities under the Open Government Licence.<ref name="OSCRDownload">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/download-the-scottish-charity-register/ Download the Scottish Charity Register] ''OSCR'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> The current-register file dated 14 October 2026 lists 24,958 charities.<ref name="OSCRCurrent">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/download-the-scottish-charity-register/ Scottish Charity Register download] (file CharityExport-14-Oct-2026), accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> The former-charities file downloaded on 22 October 2026 lists 30,736 removed charities.<ref name="OSCRFormer">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/download/charity-former-register Former charities download] (file CharityExport-Removed-22-Oct-2026), accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> OSCR's field notes for that file explain that a ceased date of 2 June 2012 is used for any charity removed before that point, because no removal date was recorded earlier, and that a reason for removal is recorded only for charities removed from April 2017 onwards.<ref name="OSCRFields">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/media/pzwkv3hq/2018-07-20-former-charities-download-fields-updated-08_11_2019.pdf Former charities download: fields] ''OSCR'', updated 8 November 2019, accessed 22 October 2026.</ref> In the 22 October 2026 file, 19,684 records carry the 2 June 2012 default date, and the "Reason For Removal" column is empty for every record; where an explanation is given, it appears in the "Notes" column (for example "This charity has been wound up/dissolved." or removal under section 45A of the 2005 Act for failure to provide accounts).<ref name="OSCRFormer" />

The register's web pages, rather than the bulk files, are the public source of trustee names: the downloadable files contain no trustee names.<ref name="OSCRDownload" />

== Register entries for selected Jewish and Israel-related charities ==
The table below summarises OSCR's register entries for Jewish and Israel-related charities in Scotland that have pages here, together with three charities that are also registered in England and Wales. "Trustee names shown" is the number of names on the charity's register page on 21 October 2026.<ref name="OSCRCurrent" /><ref name="OSCRPages">Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, [https://www.oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/charity-details?number=SC013684 Scottish Charity Register: charity details pages] (one page per charity number, e.g. SC013684), retrieved 21 October 2026.</ref>

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ OSCR register entries (current register, 14 October 2026; trustee names, 21 October 2026)
! Charity !! OSCR number !! Registered !! Constitutional form !! Regulatory type !! Trustee names shown
|-
| [[Glasgow Jewish Community Trust]] || SC013684 || 27 February 1964 || Trust || standard || 8
|-
| [[The KKL (Scotland) Charitable Trust|KKL (Scotland) Charitable Trust]] || SC037850 || 20 February 2007 || Company || standard || 3
|-
| [[Confederation of Friends of Israel in Scotland]] || SC050079 || 17 April 2020 || SCIO || standard || none shown
|-
| [[Jewish Council of Scotland]] || SC029438 || 30 September 1999 || SCIO || standard || 8
|-
| [[Eastwood Jewish Community Centres]] || SC048957 || 15 January 2019 || SCIO || standard || 4
|-
| [[Clive Jay Berkley Foundation]] || SC017216 || 7 January 1986 || Unincorporated association || standard || none shown
|-
| [[Westleague Limited]] || SC038854 || 26 October 2007 || Company || cross-border || 4
|-
| [[Giffnock Newton Mearns Synagogue]] || SC049806 || 9 December 2019 || SCIO || standard || 8
|-
| [[Friends of Lubavitch Scotland]] || SC031458 || 2 March 2001 || Trust || standard || 4
|-
| [[Chabad Lubavitch of Edinburgh Limited]] || SC045668 || 3 June 2015 || Company || standard || 3
|-
| [[Glasgow Maccabi]] || SC019965 || 13 June 1967 || Unincorporated association || standard || 7
|-
| [[Queens Park Charitable Trust]] || SC033701 || 12 September 2002 || Trust || standard || 1
|-
| [[Esterson Trust]] || SC002824 || 23 October 1985 || Trust || standard || 4
|-
| [[Netherlee and Clarkston Charitable Trust]] || SC042072 || 8 February 2011 || Trust || standard || 10
|-
| [[Jewish Care Scotland]] || SC005267 || 25 March 1996 || Company || standard || 10
|-
| [[Cosgrove Care]] || SC013208 || 26 April 1960 || Company || standard || 8
|-
| [[Newark Care]] || SC009334 || 25 May 1950 || Company || standard || 5
|-
| [[Walton Foundation]] || SC004005 || 26 May 1965 || Trust || standard || 3
|-
| [[Glasgow Rabbinical College and Mikveh]] || SC008431 || 26 January 1942 || Unincorporated association || standard || 3
|-
| [[Jewish Student Chaplaincy Scotland]] || SC005999 || 5 May 1973 || SCIO || standard || 7
|-
| [[Britain Palestine Project]] || SC047090 || 12 January 2017 || SCIO || standard || 15
|-
| [[Holocaust Educational Trust]] || SC042996 || 6 March 2012 || Company || cross-border || 10
|-
| [[United Jewish Israel Appeal]] || SC039181 || 30 January 2008 || Company || cross-border || 9
|}

* A register page with no names shows "No charity trustee information available". This can mean an exemption on safety or security grounds, or that the charity has not yet supplied the details; on 21 October 2026 this was the case for the [[Confederation of Friends of Israel in Scotland]] and the [[Clive Jay Berkley Foundation]].<ref name="OSCRPages" /><ref name="OSCR2026" />
* "Cross-border" charities are also registered in another jurisdiction. The [[Holocaust Educational Trust]] (SC042996) is Charity Commission charity 1092892 and [[United Jewish Israel Appeal]] (SC039181) is charity 1060078 in England and Wales; [[Westleague Limited]] (SC038854) is England and Wales charity 292282.<ref name="OSCRCurrent" /><ref name="CCRegister">[[Charity Commission for England and Wales]], [https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/ Register of charities] ''GOV.UK'', accessed 22 October 2026.</ref>

=== Removals ===
The former-charities file records two removals in 2026 among the Scottish charities covered here:<ref name="OSCRFormer" />
* [[Glasgow Jewish Representative Council]] (SC047108), a SCIO registered on 23 January 2017, ceased on 6 May 2026 with the note "SCIO dissolved."
* [[Talteg Limited]] (SC039019), a company registered on 5 December 2007 with its principal office at 90 Mitchell Street, Glasgow, ceased on 29 May 2026 with the note "The charity has wound up". It was also registered in England and Wales as charity 283253.<ref name="CCRegister" />

== See also ==
* [[Charity Commission for England and Wales]]
* [[Charity Commission for Northern Ireland]]
* [[The Gazette]]
* [[Companies House]]

== External links ==
* [https://www.oscr.org.uk/about-charities/search-the-register/ Search the Scottish Charity Register]

== Notes ==
<references/>

[[Category:Scotland]]
[[Category:Charities in Scotland]]
[[Category:Charities in the United Kingdom]]

Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator - Revision history

Jewish Charity Bot: New page: Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, the Scottish charity regulator (sources: OSCR, legislation.gov.uk, Scottish Government)