Hope for Sunshine on your Holidays PDF Print E-mail
Anna Minton
27 July 2010

As parliament prepares to go into recess, here’s a quick update on our parliamentary work in the new parliament.

An Early Day Motion, on the urgent need for an effective statutory register of lobbyists, tabled by Kelvin Hopkins MP, has 46 signatures, including 20 Labour and 15 Liberal Democrat. However, only two Conservatives have signed up so far.

Following the news that Mark Harper, the Conservative Minister responsible for developing plans for a register, is to meet lobbying industry representatives but has failed to respond to our requests for a meeting we have teamed up with campaign group 38 Degrees who are galvanising their 140,000 members to press Harper to meet with us.

Together with 38 Degrees we will be gearing up for further campaigning on this issue when MPs come back in the Autumn.

According to an answer to a PQ, Harper is meeting the UK Public Affairs Council (UKPAC) – the new body of the PR industry that was specifically set up to promote self-regulation within the industry – sometime soon. The new head of UKPAC, Elizabeth France has said she hoped to meet Harper before the recess.

But our repeated requests for a meeting have been met by a loud wall of silence.

The latest edition of Public Affairs News (PAN) noted that UKPAC will be “going positive” to government with what they are doing.

The industry hopes that it will get away lightly with as little as possible having to be declared in the new register. 

But as PAN says “The devil, as always, will be in the detail, and the industry waits with interest to see what will have to be declared.”

The industry cannot have it both ways. Elizabeth France told PAN that, in light of various lobbying scandals, “what is important is to demonstrate good practice by letting the sunlight in.”

One thing we are pushing for in a register is full financial disclosure. Only with this key aspect will the sunlight finally shine on the lobbying world’s more murky corners.
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