Talk:Constitutional Research Council

See also

Cf. extract :
registration of the Constitutional Research Council (CRC) as an unincorporated association. ;
The Electoral Commission has been unable to answer key questions on the pro-Brexit group that donated £435,000 to the DUP – but repeated calls for an end to the ban on identifying political donors in Northern Ireland. · In February this year after months of pressure, the DUP confirmed that the Constitutional Research Council had funded its Brexit campaign, including a £282,000 advert reading "Vote To Leave EU" in the Metro newspaper in Britain. The donation primarily funded political activity in England but remained secret because the DUP is covered by a ban on naming donors in Northern Ireland as a result of the legacy of the Troubles.

The Detail asked the Electoral Commission a series of questions about the Constitutional Research Council (CRC), including when it registered as a donor, which is required under law.

The Electoral Commission, which regulates the funding and spending of political parties, said it could not answer the question due to the secrecy laws in Northern Ireland. · The DUP this week defended the origins of the fund, with the DUP’s Sir Jeffrey Donaldson telling website Open Democracy UK: "I believe that they have raised their money legitimately and we were delighted to receive the donation from them for the Brexit campaign." · The DUP faced questions at the time of the Metro advertisement, given that the publication does not distribute in Northern Ireland. · A further analysis of receipts on DUP spending which the party supplied to the Electoral Commission, available here, suggest that the party also used the donation to pay for substantial pro- Brexit merchandising ahead of the June 2016 referendum on EU membership. · The receipt shows that the DUP paid almost £100,000 to an English branding company for 100,000 window stickers, 50,000 badges, 15,000 plastic boards, 5,000 bags and 7,000 t-shirts. A separate receipt showed that the DUP party spent less than £1,000 on 38,000 Brexit flyers from a Northern Ireland company and a further £1,600 for the delivery of 34,000 leaflets within Northern Ireland. TRANSPARENCY · Little is known about the CRC other than it is led by Richard Cook, a former vice chairman of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. The CRC is not a registered company, but under UK law it would be considered an ‘unincorporated association’. · Unincorporated associations are organisation set up through an agreement between a group of people who come together for a reason other than to make a profit. They don’t need to register at Companies House and are free to set up. However unincorporated associations must register with the Electoral Commission within 30 days of making any political contributions of more than £25,000 in a calendar year. Failure to do so can result in fines of between £200 and £20,000. · The Electoral Commission maintains a register on it’s of all unincorporated associations who make political contributions of over £25,000. Despite donating £435,000 to the DUP last year, the Constitutional Research Council does not appear on this list. We sent a series of Freedom of Information requests to the Electoral Commission to try and establish why the CRC were not on this list. · Specifically we asked if the CRC had registered with the commission and if it had what date did it register. A spokesperson said: “There may be circumstances in which we would not publish the name of an unincorporated association as other legislation would prohibit us from doing so. In particular, if an unincorporated association was to have made donations or loans in connection with a Northern Ireland registered political party or regulated donee, we would not be able to publish the notification on our register.” · The commission also added: “We are, therefore, unable to provide any information, including dates, as to whether or not an unincorporated association has made any notification to us in relation to Northern Ireland recipients.” The commission also further underlined the need for a change in the law regarding political donations in Northern Ireland. It said: “You may wish to note that the since 2005 the Electoral Commission has consistently called for an increase in transparency so that voters in Northern Ireland can access information on how political parties are funded ....

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-01/FOI%20050-18%20-%20Response%20%28redacted%29.pdf
--Lamiot (talk) 09:10, 30 January 2021 (UTC)