INDUSTRY RESPONDS TO LOBBYING BILL
The Government released its long-awaited bill regarding the transparency of lobbying today. However, what came as a shock to many in PR and public affairs was the blow to the efforts of the communications industry to institute a statutory lobbying register was the fact that, while a register will be established, only a tiny community of lobbyists will be represented.
The bill stipulates than an independent registry of lobbyists will be established and it will be both easy to ascribe to and understand. However, the only people who qualify for inclusion in the registry will be those working for an agency and speaking directly with a minister in the Government or a permanent secretary.
PRCA director general Francis Ingham expressed his disbelief at the limited scope of the bill. “What the bill contains is pretty surprising for most of us in the public affairs industry. We wanted it to be simple and comprehensive and it’s going to be simple and elite.”
As most activity in the lobbying industry takes place between in-house teams, individuals, freelancers and agencies and junior ministers, backbenchers or the like, those who do fall into the ascribed category will be a select group.
The Government has been forced to respond to various inquisitions regarding its relationships with lobbyists in recent months, including accusations regarding the removal of the plan to ban cigarette packaging branding from the year's agenda. In the months and years leading up to this announcement, the PR industry has been calling for a regulated disclosure of those lobbying meetings that do take place. This was not addressed in the bill, despite its proposed progression of transparency in lobbying.
“The CIPR sees the register of lobbyists as an opportunity to establish transparency and to reflect the positive role of lobbying by highlighting it as a normal and accepted part of our democratic process,” Jane Wilson, CEO of the CIPR, says. “Because it ignores the scale and scope of lobbying, the proposed register will fail to meet the government’s own aim of increasing transparency.”
She adds that the bill will not be able to prevent preaches of Parliamentary standards. “The Government should explain exactly what they believe this Bill will achieve.”
Emily Wallace, PRCA Public Affairs Group chairman, says, "This is a Transparency of Lobbying Bill that does next to nothing to increase transparency in Lobbying. The Bill marks a huge failure to embrace transparency and has missed a significant opportunity to restore public faith in politicians and our political institutions.
The independent registries the PRCA, CIPR and APPC have been supporting over the past ten years encourage all lobbyists to sign up and adhere to a code of conduct. Though this is beneficial to the industry’s interests in increasing transparency, for the general public, the Government registry will do little to effectively communicate the going on of Government lobbying.
To read more on lobbying, see the following links:
http://www.communicatemagazine.co.uk/news/4665-branding-and-lobbying-implications-of-queens-speech
http://www.communicatemagazine.co.uk/news/4367-transparency-key-in-appgs-finances
