Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill: data protection impact assessment

4. Consultation

4.1 Have you consulted with the ICO using the Article 36(4) form?

Yes, a meeting was held with ICO on 12 February 2020. The ICO response to the 2021 consultation can be found below:

Response 372352820 to Consultation on Scottish Charity Law - Scottish Government - Citizen Space

4.2 Do you need to hold a public consultation and if so, has this taken place? What was the result?

Consultations were carried out in 2019 and 2021. Due to the nature of the proposals within this Bill data protection was explored as part of the overall consultation process. There were questions asked in both the 2019 consultation and 2020 consultation relating to data protection, all of which were supported by the vast majority of respondents.

• 7 January - 1 April 2019: Considering OSCR's proposals and the passage of time since the 2005 Act, The Scottish Government consulted on updating the legislation to promote transparency and accountability to maintain public trust and confidence in the sector and OSCR. The consultation was framed around OSCR's 10 proposals. Over 300 responses were received, and the majority of respondents supported the proposals in the consultation, however the analysis report made clear that more policy development work and stakeholder engagement was required before we could bring forward any legislative changes.
• February 2021: A further consultation ran until Feb 21, asking specific questions on how proposals put forward by the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) about improvements to charity regulation in Scotland could be implemented. 100 responses were received plus feedback from a series of online events run in conjunction with OSCR, the Scottish Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and the Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations (ACOSVO).

In addition to the consultation processes, targeted stakeholder events with partners took place in December 2020 and January 2021 where we engaged with mix of charity professionals, trustees, charity staff, volunteers, and practitioners:

- The Law Society of Scotland, Charity Law sub-committee, made up of practising legal professionals and academics.

- OSCR charities reference group, representatives from approximately 35 charities reflecting the range and breadth of the sector.

- SCVO and ACOSVO jointly hosted two events with 33 attendees.

- Local charities took part in events held by 12 Third Sector Interfaces (TSIs).

4.3 Were there any Comments/feedback from the public consultation about privacy, information, or data protection?

The vast majority were supportive of the need to publish accounts, however many did highlight that they needed to be GDPR compliant.

It has been highlighted by the Church of Scotland, in their response to the 2019 consultation,^[7] and reiterated in 2021^[8], that particularly with regard to Designated Religious Charities (DRCs) any publication of names of trustees would allow the public to infer an individual's religion or belief and could therefore put them at risk of discrimination. This could also be true of certain charities where in order to be a trustee a person must have lived experience of certain criteria (i.e., addiction recovery, domestic abuse, disability).