BY Ian Dunn | March 21 | 
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Last Catholic adoption agency safe
THE Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has announced it will not appeal a ruling that determined it could not strip St Margaret’s Children and Family Care Society of charitable status—a decision that ensures the immediate survival of Scotland’s last Catholic adoption agency.
Ronnie Convery, spokesman for Glasgow-based St Margaret’s, said everyone involved with the society was delighted.
“We are relieved and glad that OSCR has decided against appealing the decision,” he said. “The decision in favour of St Margaret’s was a unanimous one, and OSCR rightly acknowledge that it is unlikely that the Court of Session would decide to revisit it and an appeal would therefore be unlikely to succeed.”
On January 31, 2014, after a nine-month appeal process, the Scottish Charity Appeal Panel (SCAP) issued its decision to quash OSCR’s ruling that St Margaret’s was discriminatory because it placed children with adoptive parents in line with Catholic teaching.
In a statement the OSCR board said it respected the decision. “We note that SCAP found that the charity does not discriminate unlawfully,” it said. “SCAP made its decision having heard additional evidence from the charity which was not available to OSCR when it took its decision to issue a direction to the charity. In considering expenses the panel found that OSCR did not act unreasonably in making that decision. The panel did not award expenses against OSCR.”
The board said it decided not to appeal because ‘an appeal would therefore be unlikely to succeed’ and ‘the decision relates only to St Margaret’s and to the facts in that case; the wider implications for OSCR’s policies and regulation are limited.’
—This story ran in full in the March 21 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.
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