The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises. Charity registered in Scotland SC003558. Registered office Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh EH3 6BB.
The Law
During 2025/26, new legal responsibilities around employment law, charity law, safeguarding and controlled interest in land come into force. We also provide information on other potential changes to employment law and charity law which may come into force in future years.
- Changes to employment law are relatively common, and it is important to be aware of new or changing responsibilities.
- In the last year, changes to employment law placed new duties on employers around actively preventing sexual harassment. Voluntary organisations employing staff need to meet these new responsibilities from October 2024.
- The Employment Rights Bill currently going through Westminster will not come into effect until at least 2026, but voluntary organisations are advised start preparing now, if not implementing the changes ahead of time. Proposed changes include
- proposals to remove ‘exploitative’ zero hours contracts. This change will give workers on zero hours contracts and workers with a low number of contracted hours, who regularly work more hours, a right to move to a guaranteed hours contract which reflect the hours they actually work. Employers will still be able to offer this contract type but will need to offer more notice of offered shifts and compensation for removing shifts at short notice.
- ‘Fire and Re-hire' through no agreement to contractual changes will be automatically unfair, unless there is genuinely no other alternative. This will mean organisations need to have robust employment policies in place from day one, and any changes need to be fully justified and consulted on with employees.
- Day one rights proposed for paternity leave and pay and parental leave and pay
- Access to statutory sick pay improved, removing the three-day waiting period and lower earnings limit
- Fair Pay Agreement process to be put in place for adult social care sector
- Two-year unfair dismissal qualifying period will end, and new statutory probation period introduced likely to be nine months, which will impact on organisations to have a greater responsibility in training line managers in effective performance management
- Improved rights for women and family leave returns, these changes will make it unlawful to dismiss a woman while pregnant, on maternity leave and within six months of returning to work and offers more protection from dismissal for people taking adoption leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave and bereavement leave.
- Introduction of a day one right to at least one week of bereavement leave
- A range of regulatory changes are expected in 2025 relating to charity law. These will cover:
- a schedule of charity trustees;
- publication of trustee names;
- the publication of charity annual reports and accounts on the Scottish charity register;
- a record of charity mergers; and
- updates to the disqualification criteria for charity trustees (in addition, these criteria for disqualification will be extended to include all staff or trustees who undertake a senior management function for a charity).
These changes will impact on the information that charities provide to OSCR, and charities will also need to be up to date on changes to disqualification criteria for trustees.
- Discussion is also ongoing about using the 2025 regulatory changes to increase the audit threshold for charities
- The Scottish Government is also preparing to undertake a wider review of charity regulation. This includes addressing concerns around the reorganisation of statutory charities, and improving the process of incorporation to a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO). Results of the recent consultation on the wider review will confirm which other aspects of charity regulation may be included. The timescales for the wider review are not yet clear.
- A range of changes to the Disclosure regime will take place from 1 April. These include
- a reduction in the number of disclosure products;
- more control for applicants over their information;
- an individualised approach to disclosure of childhood offending; and
- the PVG scheme becoming mandatory for those carrying out regulated roles with children and protected adults.
- From late 2025, Disclosure Scotland will have the ability to impose conditions on PVG scheme members who are under consideration for listing. On 1 April 2026, lifetime membership of the PVG scheme will be replaced by time-limited scheme membership, with renewal required every five years.
- Voluntary organisations whose staff and volunteers undertake regulated work with children and vulnerable adults will need to understand the impact of changes to the Disclosure scheme on their organisations.
- Last year Scottish Government consulted on proposals to introduce costs for Disclosure checks for volunteers. It is not yet clear whether or not charges will be introduced, along with other changes to the Disclosure scheme, in April 2025.
- From 1 April 2024, voluntary organisations who own land or property or who are a long-term tenant (more than 20 years) must register as people who can influence or make decisions about that land and property.
- An unincorporated association or a trust may need to put the names of their trustees onto the register and they will need to update this when they change.
- If an organisation doesn’t register their controlled interest in land or property, or provide false or misleading information, it is a criminal offence and they could, potentially, face a fine of up to £5,000.
Planning prompts
Are your HR policies and procedures up to date? Have they been updated to incorporate recent changes?
Have you thought about how you will meet new employment law responsibilities in 25/26? Do these need to be budgeted for?
Do you have an understanding of recent and forthcoming changes to charity law, and how these will impact on your organisation?
If applicable, have you registered a controlled interest in land you own or on which you are a long term tenant?
Sources of support
- The SCVO HR service provides expert advice on HR issues and employment law
- To keep up to date with changes in charity law, check the SCVO Information Service
- Keep up to date with changes in Disclosure on the Volunteer Scotland website
- All SCVO’s legal partners offer up to 2 hours of free legal advice for SCVO Member Organisations, with an income of less than £500,000. They provide expert advice on governance, charity law, employment law, data protection and more.
Join us at The Gathering
Our completely free national conference for the voluntary sector, The Gathering, is happening on 4th and 5th February 2025 in Edinburgh.
The following sessions are particularly relevant to this area:
Related training and events
Introduction to data protection and the GDPR
Governance and leadership Policy and influencing
Waiting list places available
