MPs call for crackdown on lobbyists PDF Print E-mail

5 January 2009

All lobbying activity in the UK should be registered and monitored. This is the key recommendation of an 18 month investigation into lobbying by an influential committee of MPs.

The report published today (05 January 2009) by the Public Administration Select Committee concludes that reform of lobbying is necessary. Key to this, it says, is greater transparency. “There is a public interest in knowing who is lobbying whom about what,” says Committee Chair Dr Tony Wright. Do nothing, the report warns, and public mistrust of Government will increase, fueled by the perception that Government listens to - and is influenced by - favoured groups like big business more than the British public.

Two key reforms are proposed: First Government must introduce a register of all lobbying activity. This would be mandatory, cover all those involved in the influence industry, and be properly managed and enforced by an independent body. Second the introduction of a tougher system to tackle the revolving door between the public and private sector.

The proposed lobbying register would require lobbyists to register themselves, their employers and, in the case of consultancies, to publicly reveal their clients. It would also contain information which would allow the public to see the movement of personnel between the public sector and lobbying industry – it would detail any public office previously held by an individual lobbyist, and list relevant interests of Ministers and civil servants and summaries of their career histories outside the public service. Finally, it would provide a record of all dealings between lobbyists and Ministers and civil servants to change what the Committee sees as a “culture of secrecy” in some parts of government.

The industry’s current attempts to open up lobbying to public scrutiny are heavily criticised in the report. It describes the existing system of voluntary self-regulation as “little better than the emperor’s new clothes” and the lobbyist’s commitment to transparency as a “relative concept”, concluding that only external coercion will provide sufficient openness.

Where the report sees a role for self-regulation is in promoting ethical behaviour among lobbyists. To be taken seriously though would require that the industry form one umbrella organisation to take this role on, rather than the three competing, weaker trade bodies that currently exist.

Turning its attention to ‘the lobbied’, the report expresses concerns about the revolving door and in particular that “former Ministers appear to be able to use with impunity the contacts they built up as public servants to further a private interest.”

To tackle this the report proposes a number of changes to the Committee responsible for overseeing the revolving door, the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments. In the first instance it should be strengthened, and its rules clarified and strictly applied. The effect of this would be to prevent former Ministers and other officials from lobbying for an extended period.

Many of the industry arguments put forward during the inquiry against regulation were dismissed in the report as “over-stated.” By contrast, the industry’s response to the report has been very understated, with no one as yet coming to its defence.

The Government now has two months to respond to the recommendations.

 

Visit the Public Administration Select Committee website to download a copy of the report.

 

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