Are we about to see a transparency bill that doesn’t increase transparency?
The government this week announced that it intends to introduce a political transparency bill before the summer recess. Now the first thing to understand about the proposed bill is that it will do next to nothing to increase transparency, and even less to stop undercover journalists from tempting politicians to behave unethically.
No, the bill will attack Labour’s relationship with the trade unions by making it more difficult to support election activity. It will also introduce a statutory register of lobbyists. “Ah,” I hear you say, “a register of lobbyists, that sounds like it would increase the transparency of external interests and how they interact with government. Surely that is a good thing?” You’d be right of course, if that was what the bill would actually do. But it won’t.
The only lobbyists that the government proposes to register are ‘third party’ lobbyists or consultants, not lobby groups, trade bodies, big businesses, charities or anyone else who seeks to influence policy (i.e. lobby). Consultancy lobbyists only account for a tiny proportion of lobbyists; in fact, according to research done in 2010-11 out of 6,700 ministerial meetings, just 20 were with third-party consultancy lobbyists only – that’s just 0.003%.
In fact the vast majority of consultancies already register lists of their staff and clients openly on one or more of the industry registers, and they are signed up to ethical codes of conduct which prohibit any financial relationships with parliamentarians, forbid them from holding a pass, or from making exaggerated claims about their contacts. In many cases these codes are written into employment contracts, and there are regular training sessions for new staff and, more importantly, there is a culture of compliance. We know this because consultancies were targeted in the latest sting operation, but the undercover journalists’ approach was so outside of the way in which we operate that they immediately raised alarm bells, and were given short shrift.
I am a lobbyist, and proud to be one. I help clients, shape their argument, build an evidence base, hone their messages and talk to the right people at the right time to make their case. All lobbyists should be proud of the role they play in making good effective legislation and regulation. Government can’t make policy in a vacuum, without regard to its impact on real business and real people. It needs external organisations to promote ideas and engage in policy development and implementation. Opposition parties need lobbyists too: they are a huge resource, a wealth of information and research providing, facts stats and evidence to challenge the direction of government policy.
But if lobbying and lobbyists are a good thing then transparency is too. Indeed, politics needs more of it – much more of it, if the public are to have faith in politics and politicians. But agency lobbyists are not the problem.
I am hoping that Jon Trickett and the shadow team will back transparency and argue for a register of lobbyists which does what it says on the tin. Register lobbyists, all of them, no matter where they work.
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Emily Wallace is a director of Connect Communications and chair of the PRCA Public Affairs Group
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