Transparency International calls for register to include in-house lobbyists and for an independent body to enforce compliance

Fewer than one in 20 lobbyists are covered by the government’s new lobbying register, according to a report warning that the public are being left in the dark about those trying to influence UK policy.

The anti-corruption NGO Transparency International says that although it identified 2,735 lobbyists who met MPs in a single three-month period, only 96 professional lobbying firms are listed on the government’s register of consultant lobbyists.



Between April and June 2014, HSBC, BT, Barclays, BAE Systems, BP, Shell, AstraZeneca and Rolls-Royce individually met government ministers between 12 and 22 times, according to the report.

“The UK’s current lobbyist register and records of lobbying meetings provide us with very little useful information with which to hold lobbyists to account,” the Accountable Influence report states. “Lobbying scandals happen in the UK at an alarming rate, and appear to keep on happening unabated.”

The report found lobbying was overwhelmingly dominated by corporate interests – eight out of 10 of the private organisations that most frequently met MPs were FTSE 100 companies. And there was little to prevent “revolving door” appointments, whereby public officials are hired by private companies eager to take advantage of knowledge obtained inside government.

The report comes five years after David Cameron predicted lobbying was the next big scandal waiting to happen after the MPs’ expenses furore.



The register of consultant lobbyists was launched this year following the passage into law in 2014 of the lobbying bill, derided as the “gagging bill” by critics who feared it would stifle the ability of charities and voluntary groups to criticise government policy.



Under the regulations, anyone lobbying on behalf of a third party has to sign up to the public register if they discuss policy, legislation or government contracts with a minister or the permanent secretary of a government department.



However, in-house lobbyists are not required to register, and besides a list of present and past clients the register provides little or no detail on the frequency or content of communications with government, the subject or value of any lobbying contract, or whether an organisation has hired a former employee of the department the lobbyist is attempting to influence.



Information on meetings with ministers or senior civil servants is published independently of the register by individual government departments. However, Transparency International found these publications suffer from severe delays, with the most recent publication referring to meetings that happened more than a year ago. The report found “hardly any” of them provided more than superficial detail on the content of the meetings.



Tamasin Cave, director of the website Spinwatch and author of a book on the relationship between lobbyists, government and media in the UK, said the findings did not surprise her and called for the register to be scrapped, describing it as “a genuine fake register”.

“When the government said lobbying is the next big scandal, fast-forward from then and you’ve had numerous scandals involving politicians and lobbyists,” she said.



Cave said critics of the bill had warned at the time that the definition of lobbyist was so constrained as to render the register ineffective. “The scope of the register was so narrow, it was seen to be doing something while actually doing nothing,” she said.



More than 4,000 people are estimated to be working as professional lobbyists in the UK, and it is believed that £2bn a year is spent on lobbying.



The Transparency International report recommends the register be expanded to include in-house lobbyists and calls for the empowerment of an independent body to enforce compliance with the rules on the conduct of public officials.



“It is time for policymakers to strengthen accountability over lobbying, as a matter of priority, to help rebuild trust in public institutions, the process of government and the fairness of policymaking,” the report concludes.