Commentary on Provisions Information about charity trustees etc. Section 3 – Information about charity trustees for OSCR’s use
16.This section inserts a new section 66A (schedule of charity trustees) into the 2005 Act requiring OSCR to keep, in such manner as it thinks fit, a schedule of all charity trustees. The schedule will contain a separate entry for each charity trustee. It may include such information as OSCR considers appropriate and is intended to consist of the contact details of each charity trustee to provide the information needed for OSCR to carry out its regulatory duties effectively.
17.The schedule will not be public facing, so OSCR must specify and publicise the questions about charity trustees which it will require answers to for the purpose of populating the schedule. This is necessary because a consequential change is made to section 17 of the 2005 Act requiring a charity to give OSCR notice of any change which will prompt a change to the schedule, which means that the charity in turn needs to know the type of information that is included in the schedule. However, crucially, the information supplied by trustees will not be publicised.
18.This section of the Act also applies section 22 of the 2005 Act, for the purposes of this section, so that OSCR may require, by notice, any charity to provide it with documents or information which it requires for the purpose of maintaining the schedule (unless the charity would be entitled to refuse on the grounds of confidentiality in the Court of Session).
19.Finally, the section provides that OSCR may retain an entry in the schedule despite a person ceasing to be a charity trustee. However, the retention of this information must relate to the performance of OSCR’s functions (for example, its ability to conduct inquiries into charities).