# SCVO joins over 1,170 Scottish charities by switching to new legal structure

**SCVO media release** **9 July 2014** **For immediate release** The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has become a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). This new legal structure, which has been purpose built for the charity sector in Scotland, allows Scottish charities to become corporate bodies, and benefit from limited liability, without being subject to company law. Lucy McTernan, Deputy Chief Executive, SCVO said: “By becoming a SCIO and reporting solely to OSCR (Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator) rather than both OSCR and Companies House, we’re confident that SCVO is being regulated by an organisation that fully understands charities and the importance of protecting the public’s trust in the wider charity brand. “Being a charity is all about changing people’s lives for the better and there’s a lot more to that than purely meeting financial obligations. This specialised structure for charities takes this into account and means that even the smallest charity can enjoy the benefits of incorporation, including limited liability, without having to comply with company law.” David Robb, Chief Executive, OSCR, the charity regulator, said: “It's encouraging to see the SCIO legal form proving popular and it’s good to see SCVO showing leadership in this way. Of the applications coming to us for charitable status, we now see more SCIOs than any other legal form, with a notable drop in companies limited by guarantee. The SCIO is flexible and clearly here to stay, and it's good to see that funders and banks increasingly recognise that.” This change coincides with SCVO launching a [consultation on its future plans](< http://www.scvo.scot/drive-scvo/>). ENDS Notes to editors: 1. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the national body representing the interests of charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. The Scottish third sector turns over £4.9 billion a year and employs 138,000 people in over 45,000 organisations. 2. The Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) is a new legal form for registered Scottish charities. The SCIO is a corporate body which is a legal entity able to enter into contracts, employ staff, incur debts, own property, sue and be sued. Unlike charities that are companies limited by guarantee, SCIOs have OSCR as a single regulator. The SCIO provides another option for bodies wishing to register as charities, and for existing Scottish charities wishing to adopt a different constitutional form. [More information on SCIOs is available from SCVO](http://www.scvo.scot/setting-up-a-charity/decide-on-a-structure/scottish-charitable-incorporated-organisation/) and [OSCR](http://www.oscr.org.uk/about-scottish-charities/scio/) 3. So far 1,172 charities in Scotland have registered as SCIOs (source: OSCR) 4. For more details, please contact Charlotte McNeill, Communications & Press Officer, SCVO on 0779 060 1995

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## About SCVO

SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) is the national membership organisation for Scotland's voluntary sector.

Our role is to champion the role of voluntary organisations in Scotland and to support them to do work that has a positive impact.

SCVO supports members and the wider voluntary sector with all aspects of setting up and running a voluntary organisation. SCVO represents the needs and concerns of the voluntary sector to the Scottish government in Holyrood and UK government and Westminster. Through our learning and events programme SCVO offers training and development opportunities to the sector.

Members access an extensive membership benefits package including specialist, in-depth, 1-to-1 guidance from our Information Services team and from professional service partners.

Access to exclusive membership networks (including comms, employers, governance and policy) supports members to grow their connections, stay up to date, exchange ideas and views with peers, and learn through tailored learning opportunities.

SCVO members enjoy free access to Funding Scotland Premium to stay on top of funding opportunities to support their organisation’s financial resilience.

Discounts and savings on SCVO products and services (including our HR service, managed IT support, payroll service and events and training) and partner offers provide members with support to allow them to focus on delivering their organisation’s goals. Further SCVO products and services include [extensive digital support](https://scvo.scot/support/digital), a climate action resource [Growing Climate Confidence](https://climateconfident.scot), a voluntary sector publication [Third Force News](https://tfn.scot) and a voluntary sector jobs and recruitment service [Goodmoves](https://goodmoves.org).

For more information on SCVO membership, visit [SCVO membership](https://scvo.scot/membership)