OFFICIAL WARNING UNDER SECTION 75A OF THE CHARITIES ACT 2011
Under the power in section 75A1(b) of the Charities Act 2011 the Charity
Commission for England and Wales (“the Commission”) issues the following

OFFICIAL WARNING
to

The Institute of Economic Affairs – 235351

on the grounds that the Charity Commission considers that the trustees of the charity
have committed a breach of trust or duty, misconduct, mismanagement in the
administration of the charity in relation to (a) the publication of the report ‘PLAN A+
Creating a prosperous post-Brexit U.K.’ published on 24 September 2018 and (b) the
launch event held on the same day. Production and promotion of the report is
campaigning and political activity that contravenes legal and regulatory requirements
for the following reasons:

1. Charities must ensure their activity serves to further their charitable purposes; in
the IEA’s case, that is to promote education. Charities may engage in political activity
in so far as it serves to further their purposes. Seeking to change government policy
is therefore only permitted to the IEA in so far as doing so specifically advances
education. Calling for a change in government policy and for a particular approach to
the UK’s exit from the European Union does not further educational purposes, and
so constitutes a breach of the legal framework as set out in CC9.

2. Education does not need to be value free or completely neutral; however,
educational charities must ensure that their research reports present balanced and
neutral information allowing the reader to make up his or her own mind about the
issue explored. The report in question did not invite the reader to make up his or her
own mind, and instead presented one proposal for the way that Brexit should be
achieved. There was no reference to or presentation of an equally prominent
publication or event presenting a different view which could have provided balance in
the round. We therefore do not consider the report is sufficiently balanced and
neutral as required from a charity with educational purposes.

3. The launch event provided a platform for parliamentarians known to publicly and
vocally support a particular outcome from the UK’s exit from the European Union to
launch an alternative plan to the current one being pursued by Government. This

 clearly constitutes political activity and, as it does not further the educational
purposes of the IEA, any costs incurred by the IEA will have been an inappropriate
use of charitable resources.

4. All of the invited ‘respondents’ on the launch platform were people known publicly
to support a particular approach or outcome to Brexit and three of the four were from
the same political party. By inviting only those who held a particular set of views, IEA
risked the public perception that the IEA is politically biased and has a political
viewpoint opposed to the Government’s current Brexit policy. By holding such an
event in the public spotlight, the charity was engaging in campaigning and lobbying
activity that is not sufficiently connected to its educational purposes.

The Commission had previously provided clear regulatory advice to the charity, both
in writing and at meetings held in October 2017 and September 2018, about what
political activity is (and is not) permissible for an educational charity under charity
law.

Action that the Commission considers should be taken to rectify the
misconduct or mismanagement or breach of trust

The trustees are to:

1. Remove the report ‘PLAN A+ Creating a prosperous post-Brexit U.K.’ from its
website and cease promoting it. To Note ; that the charity complied with this
requirement upon receipt of the draft Official Warning and Notice of Intent to
Issue an Official Warning.

2. Implement a process for research reports (following peer review) to be submitted
to the trustees for sign-off prior to publication, together with the communication and
launch plan, to ensure that the Charity’s publications and other activities further the
Charity’s educational purposes and are in accordance with the Commission’s
guidance regarding campaigning and political activity set out in CC9.

3. Provide written assurance to the Commission that IEA will not engage in
campaigning and/or political activity that contravenes legal or regulatory
requirements as set out in CC9.