News In Focus
21 May 2008
Colleges' charity status gets protection
An order has been laid in the Scottish Parliament - expected to come into force later this year, subject to parliamentary agreement - to protect the charity status of colleges.
The move follows a review last year by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR). The review found that ministerial powers to direct further education colleges were inconsistent with the requirement in the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 that charities should operate independently of government. This meant that, without action by ministers, colleges would lose the right to charitable status.
Announcing the move during a visit to John Wheatley College in Glasgow, First Minister Alex Salmond said: "This government is dedicated to developing a wealthier and fairer Scotland. These two principles require two key conditions - an education system that fits with economic strategy, and an education system that can be both inclusive and sustainable.
"To achieve these conditions, the Scottish Government needs to be able to keep further education in line with the needs of business and growth, while allowing colleges to maintain the charitable status that allows them to deliver. Today's order is aimed at doing just that."
While colleges are independent of government in their day-to-day activities, the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 gives Scottish Ministers the ability for example to alter college constitutions or amend college powers. OSCR has indicated that it considers that this constitutes ministerial control.
The new order makes use of powers given to ministers in the Charities Act to exempt colleges from the requirement that a charity must operate free of such control.
There is also a potential risk to the charitable status of post-1992 universities due to ministers' powers in section 47 of the 1992 Act to close such institutions. On 14 May the government laid an order to solve this problem by making any closure subject to the agreement of the governing body.