Commentary on Parts Part 1: Charities The charity test
15.Section 7 sets out the charity test that must be satisfied by every body on the register. The test consists of two parts: the purposes of the body must be exclusively charitable and it must provide public benefit, either in Scotland or elsewhere. Unlike in the previous charity definition, none of the charitable purposes are assumed to provide public benefit. In addition, the body must not be able to distribute or apply any of its property for a non-charitable purpose, must be free from the control of Scottish Ministers or Ministers of the Crown, and must be non-political. However subsection 5 allows the Scottish Ministers to disapply, by affirmative order, either or both of the first two of these criteria.
16.The charitable purposes listed in section 7(2) are:
Further detail is provided by subsection 3 which clarifies that:
	the advancement of health (d) includes the prevention or relief of sickness, disease or human suffering;
	the advancement of citizenship and community development (f) includes rural or urban regeneration, and the promotion of civic responsibility, volunteering, the voluntary sector or the effectiveness or efficiency of charities;
	in (h), sport means sport which involves physical skill and exertion;
	the provision of recreational facilities or activities (i) applies only in relation to those which are primarily intended for persons who have need of them by reason of their age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage or are available to members of the public at large or to male or female members of the public at large (again, this seeks to preserve the terms of the Recreational Charities Act 1958);
	the relief of those in need in (n) includes the relief given by the provision of accommodation or care; and
	the advancement of any philosophical belief (whether or not involving belief in a god) is analogous to the purpose for the advancement of religion in (c).