LOBBYISTS IN the UK should be formally registered and subject to fines and imprisonment for improper attempts to influence ministers and officials, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition proposed yesterday.
Launching a three-month consultation, a Cabinet Office paper proposed, however, that the register should extend much further than public companies and should also include trade unions and charities.
Saying that lobbying was perfectly proper, Cabinet Office minister Mark Harper said ministers and officials must hear “the full range of views” surrounding a subject, but it must happen “in the open”.
However, Bob Crow, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union furiously condemned the proposed inclusion of unions, saying: “The idea that [we] should be bracketed in with the chancers and schmoozers from the shadowy world of political lobbying is a gross insult.”
Meanwhile, public relations consultants seemed not to be displeased by the coalition’s first thoughts in print on the issue of lobbying, which was described by prime minister David Cameron during his opposition days “as the next big scandal waiting to happen”.
Supporting the registration of unions and others, the Public Relations Consultants’ Association said: “A register that did not include the Trades Union Congress, the Confederation of British Industry, Greenpeace and so on would hardly be a register at all.”
Ministers propose that lobbyists should be defined as “those who seek to influence or change government policy on behalf of a third party”, thus excluding direct representations made by companies, bodies or individuals.
A public register, updated every three months, should include details of the contacts between lobbyists and government, and particularly whether the lobbyist is a former minister or civil servant – but it would not list the fees paid.
“Some believe that financial information, for example how much a lobbyist is paid to represent a certain interest, should be published in the register,” said the consultation paper.
“While this would undoubtedly shine extra light on lobbying activity, the government is not persuaded that requiring financial information would be justified.”
For now, the coalition government favours some elements of the Australian model, where government ministers and officials are barred from knowingly dealing with unregistered lobbyists on any matter of legislation or contracts.
In Australia, however, the only penalty for breaches of the rules is deregistration, though yesterday’s consultation paper appeared to favour fines of up to £5,000 and prison sentences of up to two years for offences.
Critics of lobbying claimed the government has caved in, saying that the register would not detail the nature of the contacts that lobbying firms were having with ministers or officials at any particular time.
