From this summer, your charity will need to provide OSCR with details about its trustees. Then, starting at the end of 2025, full charity accounts will begin to be publicly available on the Scottish Charity Register.

These changes stem from the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, which strengthens oversight and public trust in the sector. Some provisions, such as OSCR’s expanded inquiry powers, are already in effect.

OSCR will be updating the OSCR Online system to help charities give us this information, and we are working with charities and other people in the sector to make sure these changes are as helpful and easy to use as possible.  We will be in touch with more information and guidance over the next few months, but there are a few things you and your fellow charity trustees should be thinking about just now.

Providing trustee details to OSCR and the publication of trustee names

Charity trustees are the individuals responsible for the overall control and management of a charity. They may be referred to in your charity as directors or committee members, but legally, they are recognised as ‘charity trustees’.

Starting in summer 2025, OSCR will require charities to submit the following details for each charity trustee:

1. Name
2. Home address
3. Email address
4. Telephone number
5. Date of birth

These details will be kept securely and used by OSCR to help us regulate charities more effectively and to contact trustees where we need to.

The first and last name of each charity trustee will be published on the Scottish Charity Register from the end of 2025. This will enhance transparency and public trust, allowing donors, funders, and the public to see who is responsible for governing each charity. Individual trustees will be able to apply for their name not to be published, but only where this might put safety or security in jeopardy.  We will provide more details of this when data collection begins.

At the moment, you should:

• make sure all your charity trustees know about this change.
• gather the required information about all your charity’s trustees.
• make sure your charity has granted OSCR Online access to the appropriate individuals.

Publication of all charity accounts

Each year, all charities registered in Scotland must submit their accounts to OSCR, which include:

1. Annual accounts
2. A Trustees’ Annual Report
3. An external scrutiny report

Charities submit this information within nine months of their accounting year-end as part of their online annual return.

Currently, OSCR publishes accounts on the Scottish Charity Register for charities that meet certain criteria based on legal form and income, and we ‘redact’ (or blank out) any personal information about individuals in the accounts. Charities are required to provide their latest accounts upon request and may choose to share additional financial information on their own platforms. 

From the end of 2025, every accounts document submitted to OSCR will be publicly available on the Scottish Charity Register for at least five years. These documents will be published exactly as received, and OSCR will no longer redact any personal information from these documents prior to publication.

This change benefits both charities and the public. By publishing annual reports and accounts, charities can demonstrate their financial stewardship, transparency, and effectiveness. Donors, funders, and the wider public will have easy access to financial information, allowing them to make informed decisions about supporting specific charities.

At the moment, you should:

• carefully consider what information to include in your accounts before drafting them. Some personal data is required by the legislation, such as the names of charity trustees. However, you may want to consider if it is appropriate to include the names and images of other volunteers or beneficiaries.  
• make sure your accounts can easily be displayed online, with a PDF document being the most preferable option.
• consider adding digital or typed signatures, rather than handwritten.
• make sure that submitted information is accurate and on time – that’s the responsibility of the charity trustees.

If you need support with charity accounting, please read this guidance on our website.

Background information

• The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is a non-ministerial office and part of the Scottish Administration following commencement of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.
• We are the independent regulator and registrar for Scottish charities including community groups, religious charities, schools, universities, grant-giving charities and major care providers. Our work as Regulator ultimately supports public confidence in charities and their work.
• There are 24,584 charities in Scotland. From April 2016, OSCR began to publish charities’ redacted accounts only for those charities with an annual income of £25,000 or more, and for all SCIOs. At present, 9500 charities have redacted accounts published.