The number of Charitable Incorporated Organisations (CIOs) in the UK has exceeded 1,000, with England and Wales now overtaking Scotland for the number registered.

And almost half of all new charity registrations in Scotland are now SCIOs.

According to statistics from the Charity Commission for England & Wales, 528 CIOs have been registered up to 29 August 2013,  whereas 516 Scottish SCIOs were registered by that country’s regulator (OSCR), up to 31 July.

This makes a total of 1,044.

Professor Gareth Morgan (pictured), of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Professor of Charity Studies at Sheffield Hallam University, said that although Scotland had nearly two years' lead on registering CIOs (since April 2011), the number in England and Wales has now steamed ahead.

“In July and August just passed, there were 990 charity registrations in England and Wales of which 221 (22 per cent) were CIOs,” said Morgan, who has recently published a book about CIOs.  “This is slightly ahead of the proportion for the first year of SCIOs - 2011/1- when 19 per cent of Scottish charity registrations were SCIOs.

“With new applications for charity registration with OSCR, 42 per cent of applications are now for SCIOs, based on the first four months of 2013/14.  Bearing in mind that some applications are cross-border charities based outside Scotland which cannot use the SCIO form but which must still register with OSCR, it seems we are getting very close to 50 per cent of all new charities in Scotland being formed as SCIOs.”

The CIO legal form grants an organisation the same benefits as charitable status, such as the limited liability from contractual and various other types of liabilities, but means that it does not have to comply with company law as well as charity law.