The British government has opened a consultation to introduce the first statutory register of lobbyists in Westminster, drawing on the experience of a similar transparency register in Brussels, which went online last year.
The Cabinet Office released a long-awaited public consultation on the proposed register last week (20 January), describing the initiative as an "important step towards making politics more transparent."
Mark Harper, the Conservatives’ minister for political and constitutional reform, launched the 12-week consultation, inviting views on how the register should work.
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) commended that the government's consultation document for making clear that it does not want "to overburden the industry with excessive regulation." CIPR CEO Jane Wilson said: "We have long held the view that the public affairs profession has nothing to fear from a statutory register as long as it is universal, has no 'good cause' exemptions and provides a level playing field in lobbying."
In comments release ahead of the Government's consultation, the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) said the register should refrain from singling out commercial interests as "more or less legitimate than other interests".
"So that means the planned statutory register of lobbyists must include charities, unions, lawyers, trade groups, consultancies, in-house practitioners and anybody else who seeks to put a case to government in a professional capacity."
The UK Public Affairs Council (UKPAC), an independent body formed by industry to manage a single register of lobbyists in the UK, said it was "delighted to welcome the government's consultation". Like APPC, UKPAC insisted that the register should capture all those involved in lobbying activities, including "management consultancies, law firms, trade associations, trade unions and charities."
UKPAC insisted on the need to have a clear definition of lobbying in order for the register to be credible. "Without a workable definition there is potential for some to operate outside the statutory register on the basis that they are 'not lobbying or lobbyists'. I expect there to be considerable debate around this."Responding to the consultation, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency (ALT), an NGO, was critical, saying the proposed statutory register had "lobbyists' fingerprints all over it".
According to ALT, the key flaw in the proposal is that the register would only cover lobbying agencies. "This would exclude the thousands of people who work in-house for large corporations, trade bodies, charities and others. This is nonsensical when in-house lobbyists outnumber lobbyists-for-hire by at least 4-to-1. It would mean, for example, a supermarket with a team of 10 in-house, full-time lobbyists wouldn't have to register, but if it temporarily took on an agency to increase its lobbying firepower, only the agency would have to register its lobbyists."
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