May 2012
2 posts
6 tags
On open data and innovation
Rob McKinnon, developer of Who’s Lobbying talks about a register of lobbyists, public data, and innovation, at the Open Data Campaign Camp Oxford 2011.
Rob McKinnon on open data and innovation by Andrew Mackenzie
Creative Commons License: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
5 tags
See Who's Lobbying data on Wikipedia with our new...
Now you can see Who’s Lobbying information about organisations directly on Wikipedia.org. Install our new browser extension to see summaries of ministerial meetings that organisations have had with the UK government.
Simply install the extension (a couple of clicks in Firefox or Chrome) and browse Wikipedia normally. We’ll add Who’s Lobbying information to over 3,000 Wikipedia...
April 2012
1 post
Government's consultation on Introducing a...
The UK Government want interested parties, individuals and businesses to tell it what they think a statutory lobbyist register should look like.
The Government’s stated aim is to increase the information available about lobbyists without unduly restricting lobbyists’ freedom and ability to represent the views of the businesses, groups, charities and other individuals and organisations they...
February 2012
3 posts
They spent $3.5 billion lobbying in the USA -...
A group of 167 organisations with almost $3.5 billion of disclosed lobbying spend in the USA, are also engaged in lobbying and public affairs activity in the UK.
Research by Who’s Lobbying has identified at least 167 organisations with disclosed lobbying activity in both the UK and USA.
In the USA these 167 organisations have a combined disclosure of $3,499,731,804 total amount spent on...
6,700 disclosed ministerial meetings, less than 20...
Less than 20 ministerial meetings disclosed by UK government departments have been with lobbying firms, from over 6,700 meetings disclosed between May 2010 and June 2011.
Mark Harper MP, Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform, has consistently stated the purpose of the proposed statutory register of lobbyists is to increase public transparency. In particular:
“‘When an...
Parliament's call for evidence on lobbyist...
The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee is examining the Government’s proposals for introducing a statutory register for lobbyists.
The Committee wants to hear your views on the Government’s proposals, and in particular your answers to the several questions. In order to inform the legislative process effectively the committee have asked for your views by Wednesday 29th February 2012.
...
October 2011
1 post
Download UK ministerial meeting data from 2010
Some people have asked for access to the raw data aggregated on the Who’s Lobbying website.
Government departments are seven months late in publishing meeting reports. They are currently in breach of the Ministerial Code, pg 20, which states “Departments will publish, at least quarterly, details of Ministers’ external meetings”.
Departments last issued ministerial...
May 2011
3 posts
Copyright law should be based on evidence, not...
A new review of UK copyright and patent law, commissioned by the Prime Minister, urges “Government to ensure that in future, policy on Intellectual Property issues is constructed on the basis of evidence, rather than weight of lobbying”.
In the independent report titled “Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth”, author Professor Ian Hargreaves states on “copyright...
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Fixing the Revolving Door - a new Transparency...
A new report by Transparency International UK concludes that the system for regulating the ‘revolving door’ between government and business is broken and needs a radical overhaul.
The report is titled Cabs for Hire?: Fixing the Revolving Door between Government and Business.
The title references a quote by former cabinet Minister, Stephen Byers, who said “I’m a bit like a sort of...
Ed Vaizey's response to being most met minister in...
Our report that Ed Vaizey was the minister with the most reported ministerial meetings with outside interests in 2010 was covered in a Public Affairs News article last week.
Public Affairs News got this comment from Ed Vaizey:
“I’m delighted to be top of this table. The only luxury of opposition was that you met a lot of people who could express their hopes and concerns. I was determined to be...
April 2011
1 post
Ed Vaizey was the most met minister in 2010
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, has been kept busy by external groups, with 148 reported meetings with outside interests during May to December 2010. This makes him the minister with the most reported ministerial meetings with outside interests in 2010.
Coming in second was David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, with 120 reported...
March 2011
1 post
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UKPAC's register inconsistent with APPC's...
Keeping the data up-to-date at Who’s Lobbying is a labourious job. It’s not helped by when we find there are inconsistencies between the new UK Public Affairs Council register and the Association of Professional Political Consultants register.
The UKPAC register lists the firm Advocate as having 1 staff member and 3 clients for the period Sep-Nov 2010.
UKPAC Register entry for...
February 2011
4 posts
Update - Data removed for review
The data that was added to the Who’s Lobbying site yesterday, 25 February, related to public affairs firms on the APPC register, their clients and staff has been removed from the site today for review.
The existing data on ministerial meetings with outside interests remains on the site.
Who’s Lobbying is an experiment to use software to automate the combination of publicly...
3 tags
Who's Lobbying launches a public lobbying register
PRESS RELEASE - February 25, 2011
Who’s Lobbying today launches a public register of lobbying activity with an analysis of the clients and staff of 62 lobbying firms listed on the latest Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC) register.
Using software to combine this data with organisation classifications from wikipedia, and publicly available staff employment histories,...
UK Public Affairs Council wants a "statutory hug"...
The UK Public Affairs Council wants government to base proposed legislation for a statutory lobbyist register around UKPAC’s new voluntary lobbyist register.
In a recent interview Elizabeth France, chair of the UK Public Affairs Council, said:
“We’ve really got about a year to try to show [the government] that the scheme that we’ve
set up in UKPAC works, and to try and...
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Over 700 new meetings ... and government needs a...
Who’s Lobbying has this week added over 700 new ministerial meetings from August to September 2010.
Our updated analysis shows the five organisations UK ministers reported the most meetings with, from May to September 2010, are:
Confederation of British Industry 44 meetings
Trades Union Congress 23 meetings
Local Government Association 19 meetings
Barclays 14 meetings
...
November 2010
2 posts
Is this transparency? No consistent format for 500...
Who’s Lobbying has today been updated with over 500 new ministerial meetings from May to July 2010. The new meetings involve ministers from DEFRA, HM Treasury, DH, FCO, MoD,
and BIS.
Our updated analysis shows the nine organisations UK ministers reported the most meetings with, from May to July 2010, are:
Confederation of British Industry 34 meetings
Trades Union Congress 19...
Who's Lobbying launch reveals who's meeting UK...
We are excited to announce the Who’s Lobbying site launches today! The site opens with an analysis of ministerial meetings with outside interests, based on the reports released by UK government departments in October.
Our analysis shows the five organisations UK ministers reported the most meetings with are: Confederation of British Industry
19 meetings
...
October 2010
1 post
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New UK rules deliver less government transparency
New transparency rules allow departments to refuse Freedom of Information requests for ministerial meetings. Before October 2009 you could get information on UK ministerial meetings by making a Freedom of Information request to a government department. The department would be required by law to respond within 20 working days.
Under new rules, departments are now required to publish, at least...
September 2010
1 post
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UK Government Departments in breach of Ministerial...
Most UK government departments are failing to publish quarterly transparency reports in breach of the Ministerial Code, according to a Government Department Transparency Scorecard compiled by Who’s Lobbying? on 12 September 2010.
Departments, on average, have only published 2.4 reports out of the ten reports promised by government for the period back to October 2009.
The worst offenders...