Government Funding Of The Institute Of Fiscal Studies

EDM number 890 in 2010-12, proposed by Robert Halfon on 25/10/2010.
Categorised under the topic of Statistics policy.

That this House is concerned that 95 per cent. of Institute of Fiscal Studies 5.1 million funding comes from so-called research grant contracts, details of which are not itemised in its accounts; notes that the vast majority of its official funding bodies are Government departments, the wider public sector, the European Commission and publicly-funded organisations, notably including the BBC,HMTreasury, the Department for Work and Pensions, the Government Equalities Office, the Department for International Development, the Department of Health, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Department for Education, the Department of Finance and Personnel for Northern Ireland, HM Revenue and Customs, the Food Standards Agency, the International Monetary Fund, the Low Pay Commission and the Office of National Statistics; further notes that the Institute of Fiscal Studies recently received a substantial part of its core funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, which is ultimately funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; believes that this huge dependence on public subsidy may create an unlevel playing field for other economic think tanks who do not have access to taxpayer largesse; and therefore calls on the Government to review how research contracts are tendered for to encourage competition.

This motion has been signed by a total of 2 MPs.