Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Integrity Initiative: Written question - 196177

Q  Asked by Chris Williamson (Derby North) [N]             Asked on: 27 November 2018
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Integrity Initiative         196177

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has (a) funded, (b) provided contracts to and (c) procured the services of the Integrity Initiative in each financial year since 2015/16.

A  Answered by: Sir Alan Duncan                      Answered on: 03 December 2018

The Institute for Statecraft is an independent, Scottish, charitable body whose work seeks to improve governance and enhance national security. They launched the Integrity Initiative in 2015 to defend democracy against disinformation.

In financial year 2017/18, the FCO funded the Institute for Statecraft's Integrity Initiative £296,500. This financial year, the FCO is funding a further £1,961,000. Both have been funded through grant agreements.

At the Eastern Partnership Summit in November 2017, the Prime Minister announced that the UK Government has committed £100m over five years to tackling this threat internationally.

Such funding furthers our commitment to producing important work to counter disinformation and other malign influence.

○ ii Integrity Initiative - Defending Democracy Against Misinformation [pdf]