Inquiry Report: The Institute for Statecraft
The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) has published the findings of its inquiry into the Institute for Statecraft, Scottish Charity Number SC040870.
OSCR opened an inquiry into the Institute for Statecraft (‘the charity’) on 13 December 2018 because we had received information from the charity and others about data breaches, and concerns about the charity’s use of its Twitter feed.
During the course of our inquiry we found that the charity was not meeting the legal tests required for charitable status in Scotland because:
- its purposes were not entirely charitable
- one of its most significant activities, a project known as the Integrity Initiative, did not provide public benefit in furtherance of the charity’s purposes
- private benefit to charity trustees was not clearly incidental to the charity’s provision of benefit to the public.
We also found that the charity trustees had breached their trustee duties to act with care and diligence in the interest of the charity.
OSCR wrote to the charity with our findings in August 2019, highlighting the failure to meet the charity test and indicating that we might use our formal powers to address the issues. Since then, the charity trustees have continued to engage with us, and have taken steps to meet the charity test and to address the governance issues identified in our inquiry.
In the light of the actions taken by the charity trustees, we do not consider formal action by OSCR to be necessary or proportionate. However, we will continue to monitor the charity’s activities and governance.
Read the Institute for Statecraft (SC040870) Inquiry Report here.
ENDS
Notes to editors
- The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) is the independent registrar and regulator of Scotland’s 24,700 charities and publishes the Scottish Charity Register at www.oscr.org.uk. Our vision is of charities you can trust and that provide public benefit. More information about our work can be found in our Media Pack.
- OSCR is a non-ministerial office and part of the Scottish Administration established under the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.