News / OSCR praises SCT
SHETLAND Charitable Trust has been taken off the regulator’s watch list as the local authority appointed two new trustees to its board.
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator announced last week that after five years it had closed its inquiry into conflicts of interest between the trust and Shetland Islands Council.
This follows the trust restructuring so it was no longer dominated by 22 councillors sitting alongside two independent trustees; instead seven councillors are outnumbered by eight appointed trustees.
Last month councillors Peter Campbell and George Smith stood down as trustees in protest at the decision to stop funding the Shetland Youth Information Service.
They have now been replaced by Lerwick South councillor Amanda Westlake and Shetland South member Allison Duncan.
The trust was praised by OSCR’s head of enforcement Laura Anderson for its “significant improvements”.
“Already we have seen positive demonstrations of behaviour among trustees with conflicts of interest,” she said.
Trust chairman Bobby Hunter welcomed the move, saying it could now concentrate on its role of investing and spending wisely for the benefit of the Shetland community.
Under OSCR’s strict monitoring regime, the trust was required to give advance notice of all meetings, copies of agendas and reports and draft and final minutes. It also had to explain how conflicts of interest were dealt with.
Now it joins other charities in just having to submit its annual accounts.
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