Practice Areas
Charities

Charity law throughout the UK has seen many changes in recent years. In particular, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 has revolutionised Scottish charity law and established the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) to support and monitor all Scottish charities. While the new regime is intended to improve public confidence in the charitable sector, it has resulted in an increased regulatory burden on charity trustees/directors.

In England and Wales, the first provisions of the Charities Act 2006 came into force in February 2007. This Act is intended to reduce the regulatory burden on charities and, critically, introduced a new 'charity test' which an organisation must meet to become/remain a charity.

Against this background of legal changes, the charity sector dealing with the impact of the recession like all other businesses and is facing the challenge of dropping revenues and fund raising in more difficult economic times is growing significantly.  Nevertheless the 'third sector', charities are still recognised as making a huge contribution to the British Economy and society generally.

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