David Miller, 9 January 2008

The Lobbyists who run the SPBE: Scobie and Gauld (middle and right)

Writing in the IPT magazine The Bridge, Devin Scobie of the SPBE notes that facilitating the access was not easy: 'Establishing... that an IPT led Programme was a charitable cause and thereby eligible to book meeting rooms in the Parliament took some time but is now firmly in place' (January-March 2008, p. 16.).  Amongst those attending the IPT led programme in Edinburgh was Jane McGirk, lobbyist for SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems UK .  This is an arms firm (part of the Finmeccanica Group the privatised former Italian state company which now owns Westland Helicopters) which produces 'sensing solutions for fighters, transporters, helicopters and Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs).'  They also produce 'high power lasers for long range designation of ground targets (selected for the Lockheed Martin Sniper pod and Joint Strike Fighter EO targeting system)' and  'long range target identification systems'.  These weapons are currently used in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the academic research has suggested that more than half a million people have been casualties since March 2003. 

The Chief Executive of the Parliament Paul Grice stated before the Parliament's Standards committee that 'Access through the programme could not be called "privileged" in any sense of the word.'  This is not quite how  McGirk saw it.  In her article for The Bridge, she writes that she had 'two full days geared on the inner workings of the Scottish Parliement with the sole aim of getting me up to speed with how it works and how I might help my company better engage with it - I felt privileged!'(p. 16)  McGirk relates that she 'even' got the opportunity to dine with MSps 'providing a useful networking opportunity to begin the process of building relationships with them - all good stuff for someone in a role like mine'.  In conclusion McGirk notes that she has 'been convinced of the value of engaging with Government'.  'So much so' she says that 'I have already signed up to attend forthcoming Study Programmes for the UK and European Parliaments'. The connection with the arms industry is also apparent in the account by Chris Shaw, Deputy Principal clerk in the Clerk's Department, House of Commons.  His IPT fellowship took him to BAe Systems where he saw part of the process of assembling the Eurofighter (a project of four partners including Finmeccanica) and also 'saw their prototype Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) developed rapidly in response to a change in MoD requirements'. (p. 9)  Shaw seemed impressed if not overawed with his placement, seeking to apply what he saw to fostering 'a more corporate approach' in the public sector.  'If a corporate approach can overcome all manner of country and cultural barriers to deliver fast jet aricraft', he concludes, ' it shouldn't be impossible for us to combine to achive an equally good - if marginally less exciting - product for the MPs we work for.' Leaving aside the question of whether the Eurofighter is a 'good' or 'exciting' product, there is little recognition that the actual 'corporate' culture of BAe Systems is one that involves routine bribery and corruption at  the highest levels as part of a huge lobbying  effort alongside ethically dubious employment of spies and agents provacateur in the movement against the arms industry.

The IPT has been in existence for thirty years and was the model upon which the SPBE was based.  In Scotland the SPBE attempted to have a more inclusive feel by co-opting a member of the Scottish Trades Union Congress and by insisting that - despite the use of the word 'business' in the title it really wanted to promote understanding of the world outside Parliament and not just the corporate world.  The IPT is not so bothered by such niceties, stating that 'It exists to promote industry and commerce and the efficient and effective administration of government' This is achieved, it says by promoting 'mutual understanding' between legislators and 'wealth generators from all sectors of business'. Typically enough 'wealth generators are conceived of as the people who own and run corporations rather than the people to work to create the wealth. The IPT is, in other words, a lobbyists dream come true.

In case the impression is given that it is only arms firms that are welcomed to this process, the Trust advertises its new members in the latest edition of its magazine as including Bayer-Schering Pharma Ltd, Britvic, Compass Group, Gallaher and T-Mobile (p. 23). All of these firms in the pharma, food, tobacco and communications businesses have lobbying objectives which will be served in part by joining the Trust.  

The SPBE itself claims to have 'no connection with lobbying in any form' and at 'all times operates in an open and transparent manner'. Neither of these statements appears to  be true.  Devin Scobie (Interim Director until the end of January 2008) is himself a lobbyist.  From 1999-2004 he worked in the Edinburgh office of GPC the lobbying firm which employed disgraced lobbyist Derek Draper (and which was part of the lobbying multinational Fleishman Hillard , in turn owned by the advertsising and PR giant Omnicom ).  Clients there included Pfizer , also a member of the SPBE.  From the beginning Pfizer's lobbyist Lynda Gauld was involved with the Exchange, later becoming its convenor.  From June 2007 Gauld joined Scobie at the new lobbying firm he created in late 2006 called Caledonia Consulting.  When Scobie became the interim director of the Exchange he remained managing director of Caledonia.  Documents released under the Freedom of information Act also show that Scobie was one of the very few commercial lobbyists to secure a pass for the Scottish Parliament. In effect then the SPBE is almost a front for Caledonia Consulting - not quite the same as having 'no connection' with lobbying.

Caledonia recently courted controversy by employing a former Labour minister who was jailed for setting fire to curtains at a central Edinburgh hotel at a Scottish political awards ceremony.  Mike Watson, joins a number of former MSPs at the firm.

Scobie himself is reluctant to describe himself as a lobbyist in the press, claiming that 'I don't really consider myself a lobbyist, I consider myself a business consultant... The clients that I work with want to understand how parliament operates,they want to understand how the committees are set up. It's not a case of saying, "Devin, get closer to MSP X or Y".' On Caledonia's website he is a little more open saying that prior to 2004 he 'spent most of his working life in public affairs and communication consultancy'.  But in December 2003 while still working at GPC, Scobie described an alleged alternative view of him as 'an evil lobbyist' who:

* Lunches for Scotland
* Tries to persuade, cajole and otherwise influence
* Stays in the shadows
* Lives in the Scottish Parliament
* Preys on unsuspecting MSPs
* Pretends we don’t exist
* And makes lots of money from poor, down-trodden clients...

Whatever the truth, the SPBE is now run in effect as a lobbying outfit. Concerns about transparency are not abated by the fact that Caledonia do not disclose their clients, so it is difficult to tell if any of them are involved in the SPBE and consequently whther there are any conflict of interest issues. The Association of Professional Political Consultants is the lobby industry body set up to resist lobbying transparency. It operates a self regulatory code which requires disclosure of clients and forbids the holding of parliamentary passes. Caledonia is not a member . The relationship between Gauld, Scobie and the SPBE/Caledonia has never been clarified.  Nor has there been any information forthcoming about how conflicts of interest might be managed in the absence of the disclosure of Caledonia's clients.  The SPBE is on other words certainly not open and transparent.  It appears however, to be shielded by the powerful Chief Executive of the Parliament Paul Grice.  If the SNP government wants to move towards transparency and openness it is he who will have to be out-manouevred.