The Centre for Policy Studies

The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a free-market think tank founded in 1974 by Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher, promoting small government and economic liberalism. It claims to be non-partisan, however it has been closely linked to the Conservative Party throughout its history. Its director Robert Colvile co-authored the 2019 Conservative manifesto. The CPS is chaired by Conservative peer Lord Michael Spencer, whose exploration company Deltic Energy was revealed by DeSmog to have been awarded new North Sea oil and gas licences; five of the think tank's board members hold financial interests in the North Sea oil and gas industry. In 2017, transparency watchdog Transparify rated the CPS as one of seven "highly opaque and deceptive think tanks in Britain that take money from hidden hands behind closed doors". In their most recent audit of OpenDemocracy's Who Funds You?, published in 2023, Centre for Policy Studies was given a D rating (rated A - E), while also being rated as "a High Influence think tank" in their audit. The CPS has supported new North Sea oil and gas drilling and fracking, and regularly published work by climate science denier and anti-renewables advocate Rupert Darwall. In 2006, then-Director Ruth Lea suggested in a letter to The Telegraph that there was no need to worry about climate change; the scientist whose research she cited denounced this as a gross misrepresentation of his work.