The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) has submitted a serious incident report to the Charity Commission following a complaint by cross-party MPs.
GWPF reported itself to the regulator after MPs Caroline Lucas, Clive Lewis and Layla Moran expressed concerns in a joint letter about the trustees’ “apparent misconduct or mismanagement” related to money spent on “politically motivated research”.
The Commission confirmed it received the letter and the serious incident report and is “actively considering the information provided and are engaging with trustees regarding the issues raised to inform any next steps”.
GWPF’s director Benny Peiser said that filing a serious incident report was a “prudent step” in light of the circumstances.
The charity was founded by former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson in 2009 and describes itself as an educational organisation that aims to “combat damaging and harmful climate-change policies”.
Investigating the concerns
In their letter sent in October last year, the signatories said that the trustees of GWPF “appear to have authorised several hundred thousand pounds […] on one-sided and politically motivated research”.
This “doesn’t fall properly within the ‘educational’ purposes of the charity on the basis of well-established legal principle,” they wrote.
A Charity Commission spokesperson told Civil Society News: “We can confirm we have received and responded to a cross-party letter regarding Global Warming Policy Foundation.
“A charity’s activities and expenditure should always deliver its purpose and be consistent with its governing document and policies, as well as with charity law.
“We are actively considering the information provided and are engaging with trustees regarding the issues raised to inform any next steps.”
They said the Commission has not found any wrongdoing at the moment.
The Good Law Project, a campaigning organisation that has been critical of GWPF and backed the MPs, said that “the lobbying efforts of organisations who deny a climate emergency are not charitable activities and should not be subsidised with our taxes”.
“Ensuring the GWPF is investigated is an important further step in our work to shed light on the role dark money plays in our politics and to push for transparency over who really pulls the strings of this government,” it wrote in a statement.
GWPF: ‘Informing the Commission was a prudent step’
Peiser said: “Informing the Charity Commission about a public campaign against a charity is a standard compliance step.
“This was a prudent step in light of the fact that the Good Law Project is using its complaint for a crowd-funding campaign for litigation, irrespective of the Charity Commission’s assessment.”
She added that the Commission has not opened any official investigation into GWPF.
“It has, as is customary on receipt of a complaint from a third party, asked us some questions about the concerns raised by the Good Law Project. We have responded in full and look forward to hearing their conclusions.”
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