Scotland and Northern Ireland

Choose your Country in Settings. It decides the regulator, the POR rules, the deadlines and the accounts thresholds Trustees follows. A Scottish Group that isn’t registered with OSCR still chooses Scotland.

Scotland. A Group, District or Region is a charity only if it chooses to register with OSCR, as an unincorporated Scottish charity and never a SCIO (POR 5a.1.2.3). Unregistered, it isn’t a charity in Scottish law and can’t claim Gift Aid, but the board still follows POR, and the accounts are still examined and presented at the AGM within six months. Registered, it files an online annual return with the Trustees’ Annual Report, accounts and examiner’s report within nine months of the year end, whatever its income, tells OSCR about trustee changes within three months, and shows its name and SC number on everything it sends out. From the 2025/26 return, OSCR asks for every trustee’s home address and date of birth, which Trustees doesn’t keep.

Northern Ireland. Every Group and District must register with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (POR 5a.1.2.4), and files an Annual Monitoring Return with the accounts, Trustees’ Annual Report and examiner’s report within ten months, whatever its income. A District sends its signed report and accounts to UK Headquarters and Northern Ireland Headquarters. A threshold that would let the smallest charities stop registering is planned but isn’t law yet; Trustees will follow it when it is.

Accounts. In both, POR asks for an Independent Examiner up to £250,000, a professionally qualified one up to £500,000, and a registered auditor over that. Scottish law moved its audit line to £1 million for years beginning from 1 January 2026, but POR hasn’t yet, and Scouts asks you to follow POR.