The Charity Commission has issued guidance to the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and closed its compliance case after looking into concerns raised last year.
In March last year, the Good Law Project (GLP) made a formal complaint about the IEA on behalf of a group of cross-party MPs and former commission board member Andrew Purkis, alleging that the think tank had breached rules on political campaigning.
After initially refusing to intervene, the regulator opened a case in May this year after identifying “potential regulatory concerns”.
Last week, the commission closed its case into the think tank after issuing it with regulatory guidance.
A spokesperson for the regulator said: “Our case examined the charity’s management of perceptions of political bias, perceptions of lack of transparency around funding, and perceptions that the charity may have pre-determined policy positions that would not be in keeping with its charitable purposes to advance education.
“New trustees and senior leadership from 2023 resulted in a change of approach in the charity, with a greater transparency and political neutrality.
“The charity’s trustees must now deliver on their plans and implement these changes to fully address the commission’s regulatory concerns, and this is required in the formal regulatory guidance we have issued to the charity.”
IEA and GLP respond
IEA chair Linda Edwards said: “While I am disappointed it has taken nearly two years to dismiss this complaint, particularly given the former Charity Commission chair’s public statement that he did not wish the regulator to be co-opted ‘into campaigns against think tanks’, I am delighted we can continue with our important work.
“The institutions of a free society and free markets are threatened across the free world. Vexatious campaigns like this attempt to destroy ideas, rather than debate them.”
GLP executive director Jolyon Maughan said the regulator “doesn’t issue formal advice and guidance where none is needed”.
“It doesn’t talk about regulatory concerns where there are none,” he said. “In the circumstances it is positively dishonest of the IEA to call our complaint a ‘vexatious campaign’.”
Meanwhile, the IEA appointed former government Brexit negotiator and recent Conservative peer David Frost as its director general last week.
