The Charity Commission has published the results of its inquiry into registered charity the Smith Institute reconfirming that the Smith Institute is a charity and is capable of operating for the public benefit.

The inquiry also found that the Smith Institute is producing work which falls within its charitable purposes, is of educational value and is freely available to the public.

However, the Commission has concluded that the trustees were not sufficiently engaged to ensure the proper supervision of the charity, given the nature of its activities, work programme and the political environment in which it operates.

The trustees did not adequately manage the risks to the independence of the Institute and its reputation.

As a result of the inquiry, the Commission has used its statutory powers to make a direction that the trustees now implement a governance review, and report to the Commission on progress in six months’ time.

The Commission will also visit the charity in a year to ensure the actions have been fully implemented and to review their impact.

Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission, said: “Trustees of charitable think tanks have a responsibility to ensure the political neutrality of the work they do. When a charity operates close to the political environment, it must safeguard its independence and ensure that any involvement it has with political parties is balanced.

“Our inquiry has reconfirmed that the Smith Institute is a charity and has found that it is doing work of educational value. However the trustees did not adequately manage the risks posed to the independence and reputation of the Institute and it was vulnerable to the perception that it was involved in party politics – never acceptable for a charity.

"We’ve used our powers to require the trustees to take action to put this right and we will be requiring them to report back to us in six months.”