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You would not expect the detail of implementation to be in the bill, because OSCR, as an independent public body, will want to detail how it will implement the new powers and duties. OSCR has said that it intends to produce guidance on various provisions in the bill, alongside relevant communication campaigns. It has given evidence to the committee on some of those plans, and the bill team is working closely with it on the commencement and implementation plans, to ensure a phased roll-out.

It is probably important to make the point that the bill does not make fundamental changes to the way in which charities are regulated; it is about enhancing and clarifying the existing regime. Apart from the inclusion of trustee names on the register and the provision to OSCR of the names and addresses of trustees for the internal schedule, most charities will not see a huge difference in how they are regulated.

However, communication is going to be important, and OSCR has that well in hand, by the sound of it.

There has been extensive consultation, including with a number of small organisations. The bill has been the subject of two 12-week consultations and there is a total of, I think, more than 400 written responses from bodies of all sizes, including a number of small organisations.

The question whether things have been included in the bill comes back to the need for a wider review, in which there will be scope to consider those things. I want to take the time with the sector, including small organisations, to scope out what that wider review would cover, because there are differing views on that. It is important to have a really full, open discussion with all aspects of the sector, including large and small organisations.

Allowing an exemption for smaller charities from the requirement to publish accounts or to provide information to OSCR would, I think, defeat the aim of ensuring transparency and accountability across the whole sector. More than half of charities in the sector have an income of less than £25,000 and are therefore considered to be small charities. That is a huge part of the sector, and an exemption would potentially mean that the public and the regulator would not have access to a large proportion of it.

In practice, the situation will be very similar to what it currently is. OSCR already publishes the redacted accounts of charities with an income of more than £25,000, and financial reporting to OSCR is already staggered depending on income levels, with smaller charities providing less information than larger ones. The point that I was getting at earlier was that OSCR already takes that into account with regard to the requirement for financial reporting. It is proportionate to the size of the organisation; one would expect a multimillion-pound charity to be required to provide a greater level of financial information.

The audit threshold for charities in Scotland and Northern Ireland is currently set at £500,000. In England and Wales, the threshold is higher, at £1 million. However, I think that the view is that £500,000 is right for Scotland, given that the incomes of charities in Scotland are a bit different from those in England, and that it is appropriate that that remains the threshold.

I believe so. I can bring in Caroline Monk to talk more about the detail. The consultation with the ICO happened at quite an early stage in the process and we are content that the points that were raised have been addressed.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak to you about the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill. The committee will be aware, from its evidence sessions so far, that there is significant support for the bill and for the modernisation of Scottish charity law.

The bill is built around proposals that have been put forward by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator—OSCR—that are based on its operational experience since the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 came into force. In addition to the OSCR proposals, and following engagement with OSCR and the Law Society of Scotland, the record of charity mergers at section 12 and a list of minor or technical amendments to the 2005 act were added to the bill. The bill was delayed due to the pandemic, so I am pleased that we are now able to progress it.

The bill covers a range of different provisions that are designed to enhance the existing framework. Each of the provisions falls under one of three primary aims, which I will outline briefly.

The first aim is to increase transparency and accountability in charities by improving public access to information about a charity’s operations. The bill will require OSCR to publish the accounts for all charities and to include the names of charity trustees on the Scottish charity register. OSCR will be able to maintain a schedule of charity trustees’ details for its own internal use and provide a publicly searchable record of trustees who have been removed from office by the courts.

The second aim is to provide stronger powers for OSCR, including the power to issue positive directions to help charities to address regulatory issues. The bill will give OSCR a new power to issue positive directions to charities, in addition to its existing powers to issue preventative directions. It will also allow OSCR to conduct inquiries into former charities and their trustees.

OSCR’s powers and duties in connection with the register will be enhanced by enabling it to remove a charity from the register when that charity fails to provide accounts and is unresponsive to attempts by OSCR to make contact. In addition, there is a new provision that will require OSCR to refuse to enter an applicant charity on the register when it considers that it would not be appropriate to regulate the applicant because the charity has no, or only a negligible, connection to Scotland.

OSCR will be empowered to appoint interim trustees to a charity in certain circumstances—for example, when the charity has no trustees or the existing trustees cannot be found. Further, the bill will make some adjustments to OSCR’s processes around gathering information in connection with inquiries to make those processes more streamlined and efficient.

The third aim of the bill is to bring Scottish charity law up to date with some key aspects of charity regulation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, thereby enhancing public trust in charities and further protecting charitable assets. That will be achieved through updates to the criteria that apply to the disqualification of charity trustees and the extension of disqualification to individuals who are employed in charities who exercise senior management functions. The bill will enhance protection for charitable assets through the creation of a record of charity mergers and a new provision for redirecting legacies from a charity that has merged and ceased to exist to the charity with which it has merged.

The bill will make practical improvements and updates to existing charity regulation and the role of OSCR. We consulted on those aspects pre-pandemic, and we are now taking them forward.

I believe that there is also a need for a broader review of the future of charity regulation, which is why I have committed to begin such a review following the passage of the bill. We will ensure that we engage with the charity sector on the scope of that review.

I am happy to take questions, convener.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak to the motion that seeks approval for the draft order.

Legislation to establish a licensing scheme for all short-term lets was approved by the Parliament in January 2022 and the scheme opened in October 2022. Many hosts have now submitted an application for a licence and I thank those who have done so.

The licensing scheme has introduced a set of basic safety standards, which will help to protect guests, hosts, neighbours and communities across Scotland. Where there are other problems, such as noise, nuisance, littering, antisocial behaviour, the loss of residential housing stock and other adverse impacts on communities, the licensing scheme, together with the control area legislation—The Town and Country Planning (Short-term Let Control Areas) (Scotland) Regulations 2021—give local authorities the powers to address those problems.

We recognise that the cost of living crisis is placing significant pressures on businesses and individuals. Therefore, we have responded by taking a pragmatic approach to help to support hosts in recognition of those challenges. We are confident that the one-off six-month extension will give businesses more time to spread the cost of the licence fee and meet the scheme’s requirements. It will also assist businesses that are facing difficulties in procuring contractors to carry out necessary work, such as gas safety checks and energy performance certificate assessments.

Although the extension will give existing hosts more time to apply, I encourage those who have yet to do so to apply well in advance of the extended deadline, in order to join the growing number of licensed premises in the sector.

We will continue to work with and listen to stakeholders as we refine guidance, taking into account feedback from the early months since the scheme launched. Some businesses have raised concern about certain aspects of the operation of the scheme. In responding, officials have worked closely with licensing authorities to raise those concerns and look for solutions that resolve them.

The extension offers a pragmatic solution to genuine concerns that have been raised by businesses during the cost of living crisis, but we recognise that we cannot unduly delay action to ensure that all short-term lets are safe and that local authorities have the powers to tackle local issues.

I therefore ask the committee to support the motion on the order.

As I said in my opening remarks, many hosts have already submitted an application for a licence, and I thank them. The core component of the scheme is a set of mandatory safety standards. Many hosts will have already met those standards and therefore have incurred associated costs as a matter of best practice or compliance with the existing law. They will have had to do that.

Existing hosts who are yet to apply are encouraged to apply for a licence well in advance of the deadline. I re-emphasise that. Those who have already applied for a licence will have already met the costs of doing so; others will now need to do so.

I go back to the original comments in my opening remarks. This is a pragmatic solution in response to genuine concerns that have been raised by businesses during the cost of living crisis. It is a balanced response to that.

A licensing authority can refuse to consider a licence application if it considers that the use of the premises would breach planning control. The guidance for hosts sets out that applicants are advised to check their local authority’s planning policies to find out whether they need to obtain planning permission before applying for a licence. Outwith control areas, a material change of use will continue to require planning permission. It is a matter for the relevant planning authority to determine case by case whether the proposed change of use is material, and it is the responsibility of hosts to ensure that they comply with any relevant legal requirements, including any required planning permission.

The question was specifically about the situation in Glasgow. Planning authorities can adopt blanket policies on short-term lets in their local development plans and, as I understand it, since 2017, Glasgow City Council has adopted a policy in its LDP of refusing to grant planning permission for change of use from a residential flat to short-stay accommodation in existing blocks of residential flats. I assume that that is for all the reasons that we understand around the potential for neighbour disruption and so on. Those powers already exist. I hope that that is a helpful clarification.

We will monitor the situation. That goes back to the point about sharing best practice across the 32 councils. When issues have been raised—that issue is a key one—we have worked with licensing authorities and asked them to take a sensible approach.

Requiring hosts to apply for temporary exemptions will give licensing authorities the ability to have temporary licences of up to six weeks. That is the right approach to take. As for home sharers, we have set out in guidance the parameters that licensing authorities should consider—for example, when setting fees—to ensure that the process distinguishes between home sharers, who should be recognised as being at the lower end of the scale, and whole-property lets, which are quite different. Taking that together with the availability of temporary licences for up to six weeks should ensure that during the Edinburgh festival, for example, people who let out a room in their home or a flat for that part of the year, for that purpose and nothing else, will be covered.