“Too many public affairs agencies out there still choose not to be regulated,” blogs Francis Ingham head of the PR trade body, the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA). He's referring to the very many UK lobbying firms that refuse to declare their clients by signing up to one of the industry’s voluntary disclosure schemes (the PRCA is one of the three trade bodies that overseas this system of self-regulation).

A slightly sanctimonious Ingham then declares that the PRCA will be “naming and shaming those companies – and their chiefs… because it’s time they realised the threat they pose to the industry that they purport to love.” The ‘threat’ they face is a compulsory, statutory register of lobbyists.

Any measure to genuinely increase transparency is to be applauded. But the PRCA getting heavy with the rest of the industry? Is the system it operates really all it’s cracked up to be?

Ingham claims that “forty-plus public affairs agencies are today members of the PRCA and already embrace self-regulation.” So, by that you could assume that forty-plus agencies declare their clients on the PRCA’s register of lobbyists. That’s quite far from the truth. The most recent register, which covers May to July 2009, has a grand total of 12 firms on it. The list does, however, come with a warning: “There are several agencies who are yet to submit their completed entries”. This is still the case in October, which is roughly when the next register is due.

The previous register, covering January to April 2009, lists 20 firms – half of the claimed membership. It features big names like Burson-Marsteller and Fleishman-Hillard, which don’t appear on the most recent register. However, it too comes with the warning that it is incomplete.

The one before that, July to December 2008, contains 22 consultancies – they’re just not the same consultancies that appear on the subsequent registers. For example, Good Relations doesn’t file during this period, despite listing 9 staff lobbyists and 8 lobbying clients on the January 2009 register.

On top of these serious discrepancies, the registers contain errors (lobbying firms listed under the wrong name) and, for a transparency measure, they are really tricky to find on the PRCA's website: from the homepage click ‘About us’, then ‘Committees’. The registers are hidden here.

There are many more problems besides these associated with a system run by lobbyists for lobbyists. But what this shows is the unreliability of the information they claim to provide. For example, how can a system that lacks the authority (or resources) to get members to file regularly and on time, be relied on to check whether a firm has failed to declare a difficult or embarrassing client?

Politicians are asking the public to rely on bodies like the PRCA to provide transparency in lobbying, so we can see – with confidence – which interests are lobbying our politicians to influence policy, regulation, government contracts etc.

It should be clear to them that only way to secure real transparency in lobbying is through a properly run statutory register.