Access to audit

Voluntary organisations with an income of more than £500,000 are required to have their annual accounts audited. We have heard from some voluntary organisations that they have had trouble finding an auditor, and have been talking to OSCR and the membership bodies for accountants/auditors to try to understand the issue better.

As part of their wider review of charity law, the Scottish Government asked about whether audit thresholds should be raised - our response highlighted that that would be one way to help with problems that organisations are facing in accessing audit. Other respondents also highlighted that the £500,000 threshold was set a long time ago, meaning that lots more organisations need an audit now than when the threshold was set. A lot of respondents suggested raising the threshold to £1mil, in line with regulations in England.

Scottish Government have taken on board the desire to review the threshold, and we are now involved in technical conversations with OSCR, accountancy bodies and other voluntary sector bodies like the Charity Finance Group about how that might work in practice, and any unintended consequences. Our focus is making sure that we end up with proportionate audit requirements that don't place voluntary organisations under too much pressure; this includes asking government to look at the thresholds for independent examination of accounts, alongside audit thresholds.