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Introducing a Statutory Register of Lobbyists House of Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee Introducing a statutory register of lobbyists Written Evidence Only those submissions written specifically for the Committee and accepted by the Committee as evidence for the inquiry are included. Ordered to be published 2 and 23 February, 1 and 8 March, 19 April and 26 April and 10 May 2012 1 List of written evidence Page 1 Tamasin Cave, SpinWatch (LB 01, LB 01A) 3, 12 2 Simon Cramp (LB 02) 14 3 Joe Egerton, Justice in Financial Services (LB 03) 17 4 UK Public Affairs Council (LB 04, LB 04A) 25, 28 5 UK Deans of Science (UKDS) (LB 05) 29 6 Mark Adams OBE (LB 06) 3 7 TUC (LB 07) 36 8 Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) (LB 08) 40 9 Dr John Hogan, Professor Gary Murphy and Dr Raj Chari (LB 09) 45 10 Whitehouse Consultancy (LB 10) 50 11 Countryside Alliance (LB 11) 56 12 Edelman UK (LB 12) 59 13 Public Relations Consultants Association (LB 13) 61 14 Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) (LB 14) 66 15 Unlock Democracy (LB 15) 70 16 Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) (LB 16) 78 17 Emma Catterall (LB 17) 82 18 Mark Ramsdale (LB 18) 83 19 Dr Conor McGrath (LB 19) 86 20 Rob McKinnon (LB 20) 108 21 Central Lobby Consultants Ltd (LB 21) 134 22 NCVO (LB 22) 138 23 Kevin Craig, Political Lobbying and Media Relations (LB 23) 141 24 The Law Society (LB 24) 147 25 Phil Harris and Conor McGrath (LB 25) 151 26 CBI (LB 26) 172 27 Taxpayers’ Alliance (LB 27) 175 28 Index on Censorship (LB 28) 180 29 Mark Boleat (LB 29) 188 30 Mark Littlewood, Director General of the Institute for Economic Affairs (LB 30) 197 31 Melanie Newman, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (LB 31) 201 2 Written evidence submitted by Tamasin Cave, SpinWatch (LB 01) Introduction 1. SpinWatch has been engaged in a programme of research into the public relations and lobbying industry in the UK and Europe since 1996. In September 2007, we established the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency (ALT), a coalition of NGOs and unions—many of whom are lobby groups, including Unlock Democracy, Friends of the Earth and ActionAid—who are concerned about the growing influence of lobbying on policy-making in the UK. We were greatly encouraged by the Public Administration Select Committee’s recommendation in 2009 for a statutory register of lobbyists. 2. We therefore welcomed the commitment in the Coalition Agreement to introduce a statutory register. However, we have since been concerned by the lengthy delays in bringing forward plans, and the lack of senior ministerial ownership of the proposals. We are also increasingly concerned that the Government’s proposals have been unduly influenced by the lobbying industry, and that the Cabinet Office has sought to keep its discussions with lobbyists secret. This could lead to the conclusion it has not approached the policy with an open mind. The Government’s proposals for a statutory register 3. The Committee asks: Does the Government’s consultation paper represent a balanced approach to the idea of a statutory register? Does it contain the right questions? And which lobbying contacts are of greatest legitimate public interest? 4. We are extremely disappointed by the Government’s proposals as set out in its consultation paper Introducing a Statutory Register of Lobbyists. We do not think that it represents a balanced approach, and have serious concerns about the very narrow framing of the issues. Partly as a consequence, there are a number of key questions that have not been raised in the consultation. We also believe that the paper contains serious errors, including in its evidence base, and is in parts misleading. Our key concerns are outlined below. 5. Two are fundamental: first, the minimal information that lobbyists would be required to declare and second, that it would only apply to a minority of lobbyists, those working for agencies. 6. First, the Government is proposing that the register should only reveal minimal details, namely who is lobbying for whom. Lobbying agencies would only be required to list the names of an agency’s individual lobbyists and the names of their clients.1 7. The reason for this approach of very minimal disclosure by a small section of the industry is justified by minister Mark Harper as follows: 1 We agree with the Government’s proposal that information should be supplied on previously held public office, but think it should be widened to include any public office, not just senior. Financial information should also be provided (based on a good faith estimate of lobbying spend). However, for the purposes of this paper, these are not central concerns. 3 Ministers already have to say who we meet. If we’ve met with outside organisations, we say we’ve met with them. So that’s very transparent… The gap is that if you meet with a lobbying company you know you’ve met with them, but if people don’t know who their clients are, they don't know who they’re representing, then there’s a gap there, and that’s what we’ve sought to address in our proposals.2 8. In essence, the problem that the Government is seeking to address is one of lack of transparency in who agencies represent. The key benefit for both the lobbying industry and the Government in taking this narrow approach is that the solution mirrors the current voluntary system of registration operated by the industry, while forcing lobbying agencies that have so far stood outside the system, to join. 9. It is the register model that has long been pushed by the lobbying industry. In July 2010 it was reported that Mark Harper had given the ‘thumbs up’ to a blueprint for a lobbying register drawn up by the industry. ‘It would essentially look very similar to the current APPC and PRCA registers,’ one senior industry source told PR Week.3 10. In January 2011, Elizabeth France, Chair of the UK Public Affairs Council, which was created by the three lobbyists’ trade bodies, described the industry’s approach as: “persuading government that what they need to do is embrace [UKPAC’s register] with a statutory hug rather than invent something else”.4 11. The Government appears to have been persuaded. However, in defining the problem as simply one of a lack of transparency over agency clients in respect of ministerial meetings, the Government is both showing a gross misunderstanding of public concerns over lobbying, and misrepresenting the facts. 12. The consultation paper states in setting out the ‘Purpose of a Statutory Register’: ‘The government already publishes quarterly information about Ministers’ meetings… But under the current system, when ministers meet lobbying firms it is not transparent on whose behalf they are lobbying.’ 13. According to the website whoslobbying.com, which collates government logs of ministerial meetings, of the 5,144 meetings logged since May 2010 only about ten were with lobbying agencies. The Government is therefore suggesting setting up a register that would address a lack of transparency relating to just a handful of ministerial meetings. The records of five of these meetings also name the agencies’ clients, along with the agency. 14. The data underlines something that lobbyists giving evidence to the PASC inquiry in 2008-09 were at pains to point out: that they do not advocate a view to a minister on a client’s 2 Interview with Mark Harper on BBC’s World at One, 20 Jan 2012 3 Public Affairs: Register blueprint developed, PR Week, 16 July 2010 4 Interview with Elizabeth France, CIPR TV, 16 Jan 2011 4 behalf: ‘a client is their own best advocate’. In other words, it is seldom the case that ministers will meet with lobbyists without the client being present, and therefore declared. 15. The problem, narrowly defined by the Government, appears then not to exist, or could be solved much more easily: ministers should be required to log the names of specific clients represented on the occasions that they meet lobbying agencies. 16. In setting the parameters thus, the Government could be accused of willfully misrepresenting the problem in order to justify a system of absolute minimal disclosure, and one that is broadly in line with the industry’s wishes. 17. In so doing, the Government has completely misrepresented the actual purpose of a statutory register, which is ultimately to increase government accountability by allowing a degree of public scrutiny of its interactions with lobbyists. The consultation’s Impact Assessment describes the benefits to government from a register as: ‘greater transparency in their interactions with lobbyists, leading to greater public confidence in decision-making process’. 18. Essential to this, therefore, is information on government’s interaction with lobbyists: whom is being lobbied in government, and which policies, legislation, regulation and government contracts are being lobbied on. Without these key pieces of information the register would be a relatively meaningless list of names. 19. Under the Government’s proposals the register would include no information on lobbyists’ interaction with decision-makers. However, there is an explicit acknowledgment of this need to see what lobbyists are lobbying for in the consultation’s Impact Assessment: The purpose of the UK register is to increase transparency by making available to the public, to decision-makers and to other interested parties authoritative and easily- accessible information about who is lobbying and on what issues. This will help ensure that those seeking to influence decisions do so in a way that is open to scrutiny, improving knowledge about the process and the accountability of those involved in it.
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