Around a fifth of all new charities in Scotland are now applying to be registered as Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations.

Scottish regulator OSCR has confirmed that since the new legal form was implemented on 1 April, its uptake has gradually increased to the point where around 20 per cent of new registrants are choosing the CIO format.

In the seven months from 1 April to 31 October, 16 per cent of all 717 new applications were SCIOs, but the last couple of months have been closer to the 20 per cent mark.

Of the SCIO applications over the seven-month period, 71 have so far been granted and just one has been refused.  The time between OSCR receiving an initial application and making its decision, for all new applications, both charity and SCIO, has averaged 48 days since 1 April.

A spokesman for OSCR said: “This new legal form was keenly awaited in the sector, so this proportion of take-up isn’t surprising.  We also anticipate a significant degree of interest among existing charities seeking to convert their legal form to SCIO when this option becomes fully available on 1 January 2012.”

The CIO for England and Wales is still in the pipeline – the Cabinet Office now anticipates it will be available in the spring of 2012.