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, the following was found:
- At least 15 public affairs consultancy firms operating in the UK have not signed up to the voluntary registers operated by APPC and PRCA (Public Relations Consultants Association). No register is kept of these firms’ clients, a failure of voluntary self-regulation. (The list of firms has been removed for review).
- Almost 70 UK public authorities were recorded as being clients of public affairs consultancy firms in the period 1 Sep - 30 Nov 2010. The government has stated plans to tighten the code for public bodies to make certain it “becomes impossible” for “quangos to employ lobbyists from outside in order to lobby the Government”.
- At least 17 public affairs staff have worked for the Conservative Party in the past. This is only apparent when you combine information on employment history with the names from the APPC register.
At least 69 UK public authorities have been clients of lobbying firms.
In comparison to the United States, there is still relatively little transparency surrounding lobbying activity in the UK.
Under United States disclosure requirements specific lobbying issues, both current and anticipated, are stated in the registration, along with financial amounts received from clients, and former roles lobbyists have held in the public sector. None of these are disclosed in the UK.
The UK Government has stated plans to introduce draft legislation to create a statutory register of lobbyist activity.
The Government has indicated it will release a consultation paper on its proposed statutory register in the near future.
The recently formed UK Public Affairs Council (UKPAC) plans to publicly launch a new voluntary register any day now. It will be based on members of APPC, PRCA, and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) registering their lobbying staff and clients.
UKPAC has confirmed its register will not include financial information. It has given no indication that its register will include employment histories, or list specific client lobbying issues.
In a recent interview on CIPR TV, Elizabeth France, chair of UKPAC, shared her hopes that the government will adopt a light-disclosure approach in a stautory register:
“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 persuade them that what they need to do is embrace that with a statutory hug rather than invent something else.”
For transparency the UK Government should follow US disclosure requirements, by mandating that a statutory register of lobbying activity include financial information, specific client lobbying issues, and the employment history of lobbying staff.
In the meantime you can explore what’s currently publicly available at the Who’s Lobbying website.
About Who’s Lobbying
Who’s Lobbying is an initiative to develop an accessible and unified way of accessing publicly available information on UK lobbying. It first launched in November 2010 with an analysis of ministerial meetings.
