Charities To Be Axed By Watchdog

More than 5,000 charities are to be taken off the official register because they have not contacted the regulator before the deadline. They will lose the benefits of charitable status and the right to call themselves charities.

The Fundraising Standards Board was set up following high-profile scandals involving Breast Cancer Research Scotland and Moonbeams in 2003. Only a fraction of the money raised for those charities went to good causes.

The regulator has been trying to contact groups to confirm their charitable status but information on thousands of them is still missing.

The final clear-out on Thursday will leave an official register of more than 22,000 active charities providing accounts open to anyone to examine.