Think tanks must be more transparent

Think tanks are able to exert considerable political influence in the UK through their regular contact with senior decision makers, such as UK ministers, MPs and senior civil servants. 

Think tanks and lobbying consultants engage in comparable tasks. The work of consultant lobbyists must be registered, whilst think tanks can participate in comparable activities without having to register. 

While some think tanks are transparent about where their funding comes from, others are not as upfront about it. In fact, for some, it is impossible to find out who their big donors are, what their commercial interests are and whether they are based in the UK or abroad. 

OpenDemocracy and the Who Funds You project rate the transparency of think tanks and other organisations here. Unlock Democracy has the highest rating of openness. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/who-funds-you/

For all we know, the financial contributors to some of the less forthright think tanks could be closely connected to other countries which want to influence UK policies in accordance with their own goals. These could be detrimental to the UK's interests. 

This is why we believe that increasing the transparency of think tanks is of utmost priority and we are encouraging our government to take action immediately.

The matter has been raised with the Government by others too.  For instance in a government-commissioned report, Nigel Boardman suggested the government should consider consulting on whether think tanks, which are in the business of advocacy, should be required to reveal their funding sources.  He also raised the issue of whether there are instances in which think tanks should be obliged to register as consultant lobbyists.

Unlock Democracy argues that without full transparency of their funding arrangements, something which the Government has already committed to ensure for the tobacco industry’s lobbying activities, but has not yet delivered, proper scrutiny of think tanks and their activities cannot be guaranteed.

We want the government to change the law to require think tanks to:

• Reveal their sources of funding 

• Register as lobbyists if they receive more than a certain amount from a single source (we suggest £85,000) and promote to government Ministers or officials policy ideas beneficial to that source.

Read our blog for Left Foot Forward about think tanks here.

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