by David Hencke
The prestigious Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) charity has been criticised by the Charity Commission for partisan behaviour by “inadvertently” supporting Liberal Democrat policies.
A ruling by the Commission – which will have widespread impact on all political parties, MPs and parliamentary candidates at the next general election – effectively bans politicians from commissioning research from charities to prepare policy statements.
The ruling follows an investigation into RUSI accepting a £10,000 fee from Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dems’ foreign affairs spokesman, to research policies for a new defence paper for the party.
The Commission criticises RUSI for accepting the money and preparing the research for the Lib Dems. Its findings, published on its website, say “It is difficult to see how the trustees discharged their legal duties and responsibilities to the charity in making the decision to undertake the research undertaken by and for Sir Menzies Campbell MP.
“In accepting the commission, the charity inadvertently gave support to him and the Liberal Democrat party. This was not appropriate, nor an activity that furthered RUSI’s charitable objectives for the public benefit as the material was not made publicly available.”
The report goes on to issue a general warning to all politicians. It says: “It is the Commission’s view that charities should not undertake such research (paid or unpaid) at the request or commission of a political party, politician or political candidate.”
The complaint against RUSI was made by the Electoral Commission, the independent watchdog that scrutinises donations and party funding, who spotted that Sir Menzies had used a donation to ask RUSI to undertake the work.
The research work was used by the Lib Dems in their publication No Choice but Change, published last September and written by Sir Menzies. It included proposals on reforming the “military covenant” between the armed forces and the government which had been researched by RUSI.
The report concludes that RUSI were wrong to accept the commission from Sir Menzies without inquiring whether it was going to be used for party political purposes and was never going to be published in full so everyone could benefit from the findings.
The report exonerates Sir Menzies from breaking charity law by using RUSI research for party political purposes, saying he was unaware of this restriction. RUSI had since changed its internal rules to comply with the ruling.
