The Charities Accounts (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2014

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (“the principal Regulations”).

As a result of changes by the Financial Reporting Council to accounting standards in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, charities in the UK and the Republic of Ireland must apply either the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (FRSSE) or Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) when preparing their accounts on an accruals basis.

Two Statements of Recommended Practice have been developed by the Charity Commission for England and Wales and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator to provide guidance to charities in the UK and the Republic of Ireland on how to apply either the FRSSE or FRS 102. The Statement of Recommended Practice on how to apply the FRSSE (ISBN 978-1-84508-422-6) and the Statement of Recommended Practice on how to apply the FRS 102 (ISBN 978-1-84508-421-9) are available from the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy or can be downloaded free of charge from www.charitysorp.org. Regulation 3 updates the definition of “SORP” (Statement of Recommended Practice) in the principal Regulations to take into account the issue of both these new Statements of Recommended Practice, which take effect on 1st January 2015.

Regulation 4 updates references to two further Statements of Recommended Practice in the principal Regulations – one in relation to further and higher education (ISBN 978-1-84036-317-3) and the other in relation to registered social landlords (ISBN 978-0-86297-581-4). These Statements of Recommended Practice are available from Universities UK and the National Housing Federation respectively.