Following the Greensill saga, the Government asked the Committee to undertake post legislative scrutiny of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 (“the Lobbying Act”) ( HC Deb 14 April 2021, c331).
| Title | HC No. | Published | Items | Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fourth Report - Lobbying and Influence: post-legislative sc… | HC 203 | 2 May 2024 | 17 | Overdue |
If transparency is the Government’s main mechanism for ensuring the integrity of the process by which Government is lobbied, clearly the information it releases on who has been lobbied by whom should be as accessible and easy to navigate as possible. A single, integrated platform that includes the transparency data …
If the Government’s transparency releases are to provide the public assurance they are designed to, timeliness is important. Yet with quarterly publication, the information may be several months old by the time it is released. We accept the Government’s case that a move to monthly publication is dependent on the …
The Government’s proposed extension of the transparency releases to include Directors General and other key posts is welcome. However, we remain unconvinced by the Government’s defence of the current level of disclosure of Spads’ meetings. It is true that, as the Government argues, Spads frequently play a significant role in …
Despite the Government’s argument to the contrary, the omission of Spads’ meetings, other than those with senior media figures, from the departmental transparency releases is clearly anomalous. Furthermore, it undermines public confidence in the integrity of the lobbying process. The Government should include Spads’ meetings in the departmental transparency releases …
We would encourage those in positions in which they may be subject to lobbying, such as shadow ministers and other frontbenchers from non-government parties, to routinely publish details of the meetings they hold with outside bodies on their webpages in a timely manner. Alternatively, the House of Commons could resolve …
For the transparency declarations to be “relevant and instructive”, we would expect the descriptions of the meetings to include, at a minimum, details of the policy area and any specific regulations, legislation, or funding under discussion.
We recommend that the introduction of the integrated transparency platform, with a single transparency publication for the whole of government, be accompanied by the introduction of a single point of accountability for the quality of that publication. There should be a single Senior Responsible Owner for transparency publication whose role …
If WhatsApp and other Non-Corporate Communication Channels (“NCCCs”) are to be used in government and, in particular, if they are to be used to communicate with third parties, then they should be subject to the same disclosure regime as other forms of contact. Where exchanges by means of NCCCs are …
To embark on a process of post-legislative scrutiny whilst ruling out changes to the legislation concerned, even where the Government acknowledges such changes are required, risks negating the validity of the whole exercise. Regardless of any non- legislative improvements that result from the process, and no matter how welcome they …
The purpose of post-legislative scrutiny is to judge the extent to which legislation is achieving its stated aims, rather than to revisit those aims and to reopen debates that should have been had at second reading. To expand the Register of Consultant Lobbyists to encompass all those conducting lobbying activity …
We recognise the level of frustration with the narrow scope of the Act. However, that frustration appears to be in large part a reaction to the inadequacies of the Government’s own transparency releases. The Government has committed to improve these. Given a General Election will take place within months of …
The current requirement for consultant lobbyists only to declare in the Register the identity of their clients is inadequate. We do not recommend including, as some registers require, the disclosure of the financial details of lobbying contracts. However, the purpose of the Register is to fill the gap in the …
The Register currently requires declarations of contact made by consultant lobbyists with Ministers and Permanent Secretaries. In line with the Government’s proposed extension of the transparency releases to include Directors General, Departmental Financial and Commercial Directors, and Senior Responsible Owners for Major Projects, as well as our recommendation that they …
The desire to avoid onerous bureaucratic burdens on small or sole operator lobbyists is laudable. However, it is important that concerns about regulatory burden, which will already be lower on smaller operations undertaking less work, do not undermine the primary purpose of the Act, which is to ensure transparency in …
As with the VAT exemption, the Government stresses the importance of avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy in justifying the exemption for ‘incidental lobbying’. However, the purpose of the incidental exemption is not made clear in the Act. The Registrar’s guidance has added some clarity but he himself emphasised that this is still …
In rejecting proposals for a statutory code of conduct governing the way in which lobbyists carry out their activities, the Government suggested that the existence of the established industry codes of conduct made it unnecessary. In order to encourage lobbyists—both consultant and in-house—to subscribe to one of the current industry …
The lack of provision to cover for the temporary absence of the Registrar—through illness or because they are conflicted, for example—is another example of where there is a clear need for the Act to be amended but which the Government has ruled out for the foreseeable future. We are relieved …
| Date | Witnesses | |
|---|---|---|
| 17 Oct 2023 | Alex Burghart MP · Cabinet Office, Eirian Walsh Atkins · Cabinet Office, Rachel Rayner · Cabinet Office | View ↗ |
| 6 Dec 2022 | Maria Rosa Rotondo · Public Affairs Community of Europe (PACE), Matti Van Hecke · European Public Affairs Consultancies’ Association, Vitor Teixeira · Transparency International EU | View ↗ |
| 15 Nov 2022 | Harry Rich · Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, Jon Gerlis · Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), Liam Herbert · Public Relations and Communications Association | View ↗ |
| 1 Nov 2022 | Duncan Hames · Transparency International UK | View ↗ |
| Date | Direction | Title |
|---|---|---|
| 21 May 2024 | To cttee | Letter from Harry Rich, Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists on the Office of the … |
| 9 Nov 2023 | To cttee | Letter from Alex Burghart MP, Parliamentary Secretary on oral evidence follow-u… |
| 18 Apr 2023 | From cttee | Letter to Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP CBE, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on … |