The Charity Commission has opened a compliance case into Westminster-based think tank Policy Exchange, after concerns were raised last month by the Good Law Project (GLP).
GLP’s 27-page complaint filed last month about Policy Exchange, a charity co-founded by former justice secretary Michael Gove in 2002, alleged that it was in breach of charity law by showing “an unhealthy obsession with trans issues”.
After initially assessing the concerns raised, the commission has now confirmed it has opened a compliance case.
A spokesperson for the regulator said: “We have opened a regulatory compliance case into Policy Exchange Limited to examine concerns raised about the charity’s activities.”
Commenting on the case opening, GLP executive director Jolyon Maughan said: “We believe these to be very serious breaches of the obligations of an educational charity.
“We think it’s long past time that the Charity Commission created real disincentives to breaches of this nature – in effect they amount to a misuse of public money – and if the Charity Commission fails to do so we will not hesitate to challenge it in court.”
Policy Exchange, which criticised the “snail’s pace at which the Charity Commission consistently operates” in a report last year, has been asked to comment.
Earlier this month, the commission closed its compliance case into the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), another charitable think tank about which GLP had raised concern, after issuing guidance to the organisation.
