The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations has approved of the changes Scotland’s charity regulator OSCR has made to its guidance for charities on the country's independence referendum, after previously criticising the draft.
 
Following the consultation period, OSCR yesterday announced that Scottish charities will be able to advocate a yes or no vote for Scotland’s upcoming independence referendum, so long as this is relevant to its charitable purposes.

Although stopping short of attributing OSCR’s changes as solely the result of SCVO's negative response to the draft guidance, a spokeswoman for the Scottish umbrella body was unreserved in her praise of the turnaround.

She told civilsociety.co.uk that as well as improving its overall clarity, some of the main positive changes OSCR have made to the final guidance are:

• It now only covers what is legally permissible by the Charities Act (OSCR’s remit) and it makes it clearer that any issues of risk and reputation are matters for consideration by charity trustees rather than the regulator.
• In SCVO’s response it said “OSCR was set up to ‘minimise the burden of regulation on charities wherever possible’ and this document must reflect that aim by providing a clear and simple document which charities of all sizes and capacities can easily interpret”. SCVO believes OSCR has achieved that.
• It makes it 100 per cent clear on which grounds a charity may get involved in the referendum debate or support a particular outcome.
• It also makes clear the fact that the ‘Yes Scotland’ and ‘Better Together' campaigns are not political parties and explains what the implications of this distinction are.

Martin Sime, chief executive of SCVO, added:
 
“Charities play a huge role in public life in Scotland so the referendum is bound to have a big impact on them. It is important that voluntary sector organisations are able to get fully involved in the debate and this guidance from OSCR will help them to think about the issues involved, whilst adhering to the law.
 
“The examples of work already underway in specific organisations will be particularly useful. SCVO strongly supports this work.”  

OSCR’s new guidance for charities on the referendum on Scottish independence is available on its website here.

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