The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has today confirmed the charitable status of four independent schools after requiring them to widen access to meet the charity test in 2008.

Concluding a final assessment of the Hutcheson Educational Trust, Lomond School, Merchiston Castle School and St Leonards Schools' progress over the past three years, the Scottish regulator has confirmed that access to the schools is now sufficiently open to be classified as charities.

"In our role as Scotland's guardian of charitable status, we have closely scrutinised the submissions made to us by the four schools and maintained a consistent dialogue over the past three years," said OSCR's chair, the very reverend Dr Graham Forbes.

"Over that period each has been required to move from a position where access to the benefit they provided was unduly restricted by the fees they charged, to one today where significant steps have been taken in order to meet the charity test."

Measures taken by the schools to meet OSCR's directions included entering partnerships with state schools for teaching and the use of resources as well as increasing the amount available to help with the cost of fees.

The approval of the four schools means that they will now remain on the Scottish charity register.

There are currently 58 charities on the Scottish charity register which run schools and to date OSCR has assessed 12 independent schools. Six met the charity test requirements in the first instance, while five, including the four announced today, were issued with directions and subsequently met the test. One is currently under review.

In order to meet the Scottish charity test, organisations must have exclusively charitable purposes, provide public benefit and fees required in order to access the public benefit must not be restrictive. 

South of the border, the Charity Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, recently contested a Tribunal case to ascertain how public benefit requirements apply to independent schools and whether its guidance on the matter was lawful. The Upper Tribunal found that some of the Commission's guidance was wrong or obscure and must be amended, and confirmed that like in Scotland, public benefit for fee-paying students is only applicable if accompanied by direct benefit for poor pupils, beyond a tokenistic level.