OSCR: the secondees' perspective

Solicitors play a key role in supporting charities to comply with their legal and regulatory responsibilities, contributing to the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator’s (OSCR’s) vision of a thriving charity sector and safeguarding charity assets. With this in mind OSCR has developed, and commenced in March of last year, an ongoing programme of legal secondment opportunities which aims to promote external knowledge and understanding of OSCR’s role as a regulator and the process of charity regulation to solicitors who specialise in charity law.

We are the current legal secondees. We both specialise in charity law in our respective firms and, with their support, have been seconded for a period of six months, joining OSCR’s legal team which forms part of the larger Policy and Development Team. This team is responsible for OSCR’s development agenda, policy, research functions and legal support.

We are very enthusiastic about the secondment programme. It has given us hands-on experience in all areas within the OSCR legal team’s remit. We have been given the opportunity to work with the Charity Services Team on applications for charity status, consents and reorganisations. In these areas, we provide detailed advice on the interpretation of constitutions, the Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and legal issues arising from more complex reorganisations.

Additionally, in our work with the Enquiry and Investigation Team, we provide advice on the interpretation and application of the misconduct provisions of the 2005 Act and also misconduct arising out of the operation of law other than charity law. This work has offered a real insight into the powers and duties of OSCR, where charity trustees are potentially acting in breach of their duties, whether in terms of the 2005 Act or otherwise.

While on secondment we have also been involved in the development of internal OSCR legal guidance.

We are now reaching the end of our secondments and our experience has been very positive. We are grateful to have been given the opportunity to share in the wealth of experience and skill, from the senior management to the case officers in OSCR, and would recommend the secondment to all solicitors who have a real interest in this area of the law. The secondment provides us with invaluable knowledge of how OSCR operates, and how it considers, approaches and decides applications for charity status, consents and reorganisations, which we take back to our respective firms. We have both found that this has already benefited our clients. Overall, the experience has enabled us to provide our clients with more comprehensive and informed advice when we have queries about charity law and regulation.

Quentin Fisher, OSCR’s Head of Policy and Development, told us: “The secondment programme was initiated to allow solicitors to increase their understanding of charity regulation and ultimately to improve charity compliance, and we believe that it is achieving this objective. In addition it provides significant benefits for OSCR. It brings new skills into the organisation, increases OSCR’s understanding of a key service user group, and allows us to build valuable relationships across the legal sector. We are sorry to see Marion and Moira go, as they have made a massive contribution in their time with us, but we look forward to welcoming the next round of secondees in May, contributing to the continued success of the programme.”