Sector welcomes call for lobbying register

Finance | Tania Mason | 6 Jan 2009

The Public Administration Select Committee's call for a statutory register of lobbying activity is a huge step forward and should be implemented by government as soon as possible, according to the voluntary sector's Alliance for Lobbying Transparency.

The Committee (PASC) this week published its long-awaited parliamentary report into lobbying in the UK, produced following eight evidence sessions between November 2007 and June 2008.

The report calls for greater transparency in dealings between parliamentarians and civil servants and those that seek to influence their decisions, be they business interests, charities and other campaigning groups.

Letting the current situation continue would only increase public mistrust of government and further build the impression that those in power pay much more attention to big business and party donors than anyone else, it said.

New independent regulatory body

As well as a mandatory public register "for all those outside the public sector involved in influencing decision-makers, with exceptions in only very limited circumstances", the PASC suggests that this register should be managed and enforced by a single body independent of both government and lobbyists.

The current system, it said, of voluntary self-regulation, is "little better than the Emperor's new clothes".

Advisory committee on business appointments

And, in a bid to curtail the "revolving door" syndrome that sees former MPs easily secure lucrative jobs in the private sector, the PASC also called for the establishment of an advisory committee on business appointments.

Such a committee would be "more representative of society at large" and would provide departing ministers with advice about the lobbying activities that they can legitimately and ethically carry out.

‘Does not address think-tanks'

The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency welcomed the report and urged the government to implement its "strong" recommendations.

But Friends of the Earth corporates campaigner Owen Espley, who pushed for just such a register in his evidence to the PASC hearing last May, added there was some disappointment that the report did not do more to increase financial transparency or address think-tanks, many of whom claim not to be involved in lobbying activities but do try to influence policy.

Who's Who: Tania Mason

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