Lobbyists in the heart of government PDF Print E-mail
Andrew LansleyAndrew Lansley’s wife runs a public affairs business which boasts about advising drug and food companies, the Telegraph reports at the weekend.

Sally Low, Lansley’s wife and MD of Low Associates, doesn’t call herself a lobbyist – few do – but instead provides “strategic policy” advice to clients. And like many in the industry, Low doesn’t declare who it lobbies for under the current system of self-regulation.

As her husband’s boss said of lobbying last year: “We don’t know who is meeting whom. We don’t know whether any favours are being exchanged. We don’t know which outside interests are wielding unhealthy influence.”

If it’s ‘strategic policy advice’ you’re after from someone close to the heart of government, you could also try one of firms owned by one of David Cameron’s closest allies, Lord Chadlington, aka Peter Gummer. Quiller Consultants for example, which will help its “clients make their case directly to key targets in government and Parliament” (and “understands the importance of discretion”). You’d be buying the advice of Quiller lobbyist George Bridges, friend to George Osborne and Cameron’s former election campaign manager, as well as Theresa May’s ex-chief of staff, and an ex-strategist for the Chief Medical Officer. Quiller lobbies for among others, Capita, the enormous outsourcing firm which has its eye on running NHS Direct, and a private equity firm heavily invested in health.

Unlike Low Associates, Quiller has just started to declare its clients under the system of self-regulation for lobbyists. So, we know that it lobbies for Capita, but what it's lobbying for, who it's lobbying, how much money is being spent – any of the details that would allow public scrutiny of lobbying – are absent.

The lobbying industry is about to launch a revamped voluntary register of lobbying activity under the new umbrella body, the UK Public Affairs Council. This it hopes will deter the coalition from introducing a statutory system of registration, as it has pledged to do, or at least steer ministers away from real transparency rules, where lobbyists would have to come clean on precisely who is lobbying whom, over what and with what budget.

Launching the same register under a new name changes nothing. Voluntary self-regulation for lobbyists does not and cannot open their activities up to much needed public scrutiny. Only a robust statutory register can do that. Despite David Cameron’s warnings that lobbying is the ‘next big scandal waiting to happen’, we are still waiting on the government for that.
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