Scottish charity law—a summary

Produced in partnership with Gavin McEwan of Turcan Connell
Practice notes

Scottish charity law—a summary

Produced in partnership with Gavin McEwan of Turcan Connell

Practice notes
imgtext

FORTHCOMING CHANGE: The Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 9 August 2023 and came into force partly on 1 April 2024 and on 1 October 2024. The Act is due to come fully into force by the end of 2025. This Practice Note may be updated further to reflect future commencements of this new legislation.

Historical background

Trusts for Charitable purposes, as a subset of the concept of public trusts in Scotland, may be considered the precursors to modern Scottish charities. The law on public trusts developed largely through a series of Court of Session cases in the nineteenth century, which built on earlier English law principles.

The closest Scotland came to a formal definition of charitable purposes was the definition used in England and Wales for tax purposes set down in the case of Commissioners for Special Purposes of Income Tax v Pemsel which in turn relied upon the Statute of Charitable Uses (1601). The definition was reiterated for Scottish purposes in the case of Inland Revenue

Gavin McEwan
Gavin McEwan

Gavin McEwan is a Partner and Head of Charities at Turcan Connell working principally in the fields of charity law, succession, trusts and tax. He is the Head of Turcan Connell's Charities Legal Team, is accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in charity law and chairs the Law Society of Scotland’s panel on specialist accreditation in charity law. He is a member of the Charity Law Reform Committee of the Law Society of Scotland and the Charity Law Association Executive Committee and Standing Tax Committee.

Gavin's work in the area of charity law includes the establishment and reorganisation of charities, from Royal Charter bodies and major public trusts to smaller active and grant-making charities. He also advises a number of national institutions, arts bodies and historic houses.

Gavin is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde and trained at W & J Burness WS and Turcan Connell. He qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and became a Partner at Turcan Connell in April 2010. He has a broad interest in opera and the arts. Gavin is General Editor of the Scottish Private Client Law Review and author of the Scottish chapter of Tolley's Charities Manual, the Scottish chapter of the Global Guide to Charity Law, and a co-author of W Green’s Practical Guide to Charity Law in Scotland. Gavin is a trustee of a number of charities, including the Lawscot Foundation, the Edinburgh International Festival Endowment Fund and Old Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Edinburgh. Gavin also sits as Legal Assessor to the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He is a member of the board of directors of The Dean Cemetery Trust Limited

Powered by Lexis+®
Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Key definition:
Charity definition
What does Charity mean?

A charity is an institution which is established for charitable purposes only and falls to be subject to the control of the High Court in the exercise of its jurisdiction with respect to charities (Charities Act 2011, s 1)

Popular documents