Full Fact was founded in 2009 by Conservative Party donor Michael Samuel and Anne Freud Centre Chairman, Will Moy and has 18staff as of 2019. Moy had been working as a researcher for Lord Low and noticed that lobbyists often provided inaccurate briefings to such legislators. Samuel had been concerned about accuracy in public debate for a number of years. Moy and Samuel were introduced by Julia Neuberger and worked together to found Full Fact. Full Fact applied to the Charity Commission for charitable status when it was being founded in 2009 but this was refused. An appeal was heard by the commission's tribunal in 2011 but this was rejected on the grounds that the stated objective of "civic engagement" was too political in nature. The wording was changed to "the advancement of public education" and charitable status was then granted in 2014.
Methodology
Full Fact initially rated material on a five-point scale, using a magnifying glass as a symbol, instead of a star. They dropped this system as they felt such ratings were unreliable and so did not enhance their long-term reputation. The fact-checking process includes a three-stage review. Facts may then be reviewed by external academics too. Full Fact has been sponsored to develop automated fact-checking tools by the Omidyar Network and Open Society Foundations. Live is one of the tools that is intended to immediately check statements against a database of verified facts. The other tool is called Trends and this will track and display the spread of false information. Full Fact offers three-month secondments to statisticians working in the Government Statistical Service. Secondees have performed activities such as fact-checking Question Time and providing guidance on the presentation of statistics. Full Fact has also partnered with media organisations including the BBC, ITV and Sky News to provide information about political campaigns including the Scottish and UK-EU referenda and the general elections of 2015 and 2017. It also provided evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and the BBC Trust's impartiality review.
Elections and referendums
In 2016, Full Fact covered the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum to check claims made during the campaign. For example that "We send the EU £350M a week". Full Fact found that this was misleading, as the net amount sent was £250 million because of the UK's rebate. Another £77 million a week later comes back as EU expenditure on UK based projects, "mainly to farmers and for poorer areas of the country". Furthermore, extra money comes back as the EU spends money on the UK private sector, estimated by Full Fact to be £1.5 billion a year. In 2017, Full Fact collaborated with another similar organisation, First Draft, to staff a fact-checking team covering the UK general election.
