Almost one in five declare lobbying or outside interests – but just 11 will have to sign the new lobby register

Almost one in five staff members employed by MPs and peers also have lobbying or outside interests, an analysis of data by the Guardian reveals.

There are currently 113 passholders in the House of Commons who declare outside interests to other bodies, while another 206 in the House of Lords have similar links, the analysis of parliamentary records shows.

Those in possession of parliamentary passes include a defence industry lobbyist who was once suspended from the Palace of Westminster and people with links to banks, gambling firms and low tax campaigners.

Of more than 300 staff working for parliamentarians in Westminster with outside interests, the Guardian has found that only a maximum of 11 are likely to be required to sign the lobby register when it is introduced at the end of next month – and only then if they meet a minister or a senior civil servant in the course of their activities.

The register has been set up to satisfy David Cameron’s pledge in 2010 to curb outside interests in parliament. The prime minister described lobbying as “the next big scandal waiting to happen”.

It aims to target up to 75 “third party lobbyists” – public affairs companies employed by clients. But data shows that there are dozens of other bodies including thinktanks, PR companies, campaign groups and charities with access to a parliamentary pass.

The shadow communities minister, Hilary Benn, has acquired a parliamentary pass for his brother Stephen, who is a parliamentary adviser for the Society of Biology and, last year, reclaimed the family title Viscount Stansgate, which was dropped by his father, the late leftwing firebrand Tony Benn.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robin Ashby

Stephen Benn said he helped to promote science in parliament. “I also provide Hilary Benn with occasional advice on matters relating to science,” he said.

Hilary Benn said he was “proud” to support his brother’s work to improve understanding and links between scientists and Parliament.

Among those who may be expected to register is the defence lobbyist Robin Ashby, the director general of the UK Defence Forum. Ashby was stripped of his parliamentary pass in 2008 after Lady Harris, who provided the access, said the pass could be “open to misinterpretation” due to his work as a defence lobbyist. His pass was reissued, sponsored by the former Labour defence minister Lord Moonie. Ashby said: “I’m retired from that line of work.”

Peers who provide passes to staff involved in public affairs include Lord Laird, the former Ulster Unionist politician who was banned from the House of Lords for four months after he told undercover reporters to offer “bribes” of free holidays to Fiji, in order to win the support of the upper chamber.



According to the register, he has given a pass to an executive working for Biscuit PR. Its website says it specialises in developing a climate of opinion and favourable starting points with stakeholders and key influencers including “national and international governments”.

Most of the staff with outside links do not see themselves as lobbyists.

But Tamasin Cave, a director of Spinwatch, which campaigns on lobbying transparency, said the figures showed that the lobbying bill, introduced last year, and the lobbying register, which will be introduced next month, should be scrapped. “If they fail to cover a majority of lobbyists who are allowed to wander into parliament at will, what on earth is the point?



“These figures show that the government has, either deliberately or through incompetence, blown a real chance to reform lobbying in parliament which allows vested interests to gain top level access to the levers of power. The lobbying registrar is producing a register which is utterly meaningless.”.

There is no suggestion that rules have been broken, but one lobbying organisation said the figures show the potential for abuse. Iain Anderson, the chair of the Association of Professional Political Consultants, said it was “wholly unethical” to allow anyone who does lobbying to hold a parliamentary pass. The 319 staff with lobbying links are in addition to 28 staff who have gone on overseas trips paid for by lobbying groups, and 19 who have received gifts and benefits from interest groups, including interns paid for by lobbying groups and working inside the parliament.

Cameron has pledged to look again at tightening the rules around lobbying after last month’s sting by undercover reporters when former foreign secretaries Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind were secretly recorded discussing lucrative work for a bogus Chinese firm. They have referred themselves to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and are under investigation by their parties. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Under the current rules, those who work for a MP or peer for a few hours a month can receive a parliamentary pass and full access to most of parliament.



The great advantage of being given a parliamentary pass, insiders say, is that it allows “brush by” encounters with those close to ministers within parliament which do not have to be recorded or declared.



Among MPs’ staff, Christian organisations are well represented, with six declaring paid links to organisations such as Conservative Christian Fellows and Christians on the Left, and an additional 11 interns paid for by Care and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England.

Nine staff members declare that they have been paid by organisations from the energy sector. These include representatives from BP and Centrica.

Thinktanks and lobbying organisations that have argued for a reduced tax burden on businesses are also well represented. Four senior staff members who also work for the TaxPayers’ Alliance have parliamentary passes. One from the rightwing thinktank the Institute of Economic Affairs also has a pass.

Labour’s reliance on sponsorship from PwC is also in evidence in the registers. Shadow frontbenchers Tessa Jowell, Tristram Hunt and Ed Balls as well as the Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald have declared staff from the accountancy firm, as well as the Tory peer Lord Marland.

MPs’ staff are expected to register any occupation or employment if holding a pass gives them an advantage in their other roles or if the work provides income of worth more than £330 a year.

When a peer applies for a staff pass, he or she is asked to sign a document verifying the passholder is “genuinely and personally providing parliamentary secretarial or research assistance to them”.

Others include Dougal Driver, a former MoD adviser and Defra official who is now the chief executive of Envoke Ltd, which specialises in “breaking down barriers to business, building successful partnerships and facilitating change”.

Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, has one assistant who is the director of a firm that produces business plans for a health trust. Another has been working as a consultant to the Chamber of Commerce.



‘Bowling over to the house of Westminster’

“Whether gliding around London on her electric Vectrix [scooter] or bowling over to the House of Lords at Westminster, [or] simply walking into a room - Sabine Raabe is a woman with presence,” Biscuit PR’s website said about its owner.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sabine Raab and Lord Laird at the Lloyds TSB People Environment & Achievement Business Awards. Photograph: Vimeo

What it doesn’t say is that the public affairs executive, like hundreds of other individuals with outside interests, has been able to gain access to parliament with a staff pass issued to her by a parliamentarian. Her sponsor is Lord Laird, the Ulster peer who was one of the peers caught offering to buy political access to undercover reporters.

Firms or individuals that earn less than £81,000 from lobbying, and therefore do not pay VAT, will be exempt – a requirement of the lobbying bill so that smaller traders are not forced to pay registration fees. Even then, a lobbyist will only need to register who they are lobbying on behalf of, not who they are meeting, what was discussed or how much money they have received to lobby for companies or on particular issues.

In December 2013, the House of Lords suspended Laird for four months after he indicated that he would use the promise of a trip to Fiji as a “bribe” in order to get people to join a parliamentary group.



Raabe, who writes on her LinkedIn page that through “lobbying work I have insight into government policy”, said that she enters parliament sometimes two or three times a week. Laird appeared prominently on Biscuit’s website alongside Raabe – he has “lobbied in both America and European parliaments”, it said – but Raabe says his presence has not brought in business.

Raabe insists she has never used her pass for lobbying purposes and describes herself as a PR executive. “It is me that people buy into and not Lord Laird. On the new version website, he will not feature any more,’ she said. Laird said he has never lobbied for Biscuit in the Lords. The website was taken down a few hours after Raabe was contacted.

Another recent passholder is Stephanie Lis, the head of communications for the Institute of Economic Affairs, who holds a pass provided by Conservative MP Kwasi Kwarteng.

She will not have to sign the lobby register when it comes into place at the end of this month because “in house” lobbyists, those who promote their own company, not a third party, are excluded.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kwasi Kwarteng

Kwarteng, who provided the pass, said: “It would be one thing if she was working for a lobbying firm and I had given her the pass because then she would be doing business ... But if it’s a thinktank and she wants to talk policy with people, I don’t see any real conflict of interest.”

But what exactly is a “lobbyist”? The UK Public Affairs Council, the independent body established to monitor the public affairs sector, defines the work of a lobbyist as “those who, in a professional capacity, work to influence, or advise those who wish to influence, the institutions of government in the UK.”

Among more than 20 parliamentary staff who have outside interests approached by the Guardian, none describe themselves as lobbyists.

Steve Donoughue, who has a parliamentary pass from the Labour peer Lady Golding, insists that he is not a lobbyist and that his company, GamblingConsultant.co.uk, does not lobby. “I’m a strategic consultant. If you look at my website, you will see that I don’t arrange meetings with politicians or civil servants,” said Donoughue, who is also the secretariat of the all-party parliamentary betting and gaming group.



The level of disclosure required in the staff register of interests is poor. The Guardian discovered numerous staff with secondary jobs who had not had to disclose the nature of their work.

Ranil Jayawardena, who worked on a voluntary basis for MP James Arbuthnot and is standing as a Conservative MP for North East Hampshire in the May election, stated in his declaration that he was a senior manager for Lloyds Banking Group. However, disclosures from the European parliament show that he has lobbied MEPs on European banking legislation and acted as Lloyds’ “government relations manager” during the integration of HBOS with Lloyds TSB.

Jayawardena said his current work for Lloyds involved engaging with MPs on matters concerning Lloyds operations, for whom he works three days a week, and undertaking political work the remainder of the time.

Critics of the new register have been quick to point out that its registrar, Alison White, has been handed a botched bill and asked to implement it. It is a narrowly defined definition of lobbying which excludes many who receive passes.

White, who was appointed last year, told the Guardian it would not stop lobbying in parliament or beyond. “Lobbying will go on which does not have to be registered because it is not within the Act,” she said.

The register would be ready by the final week of March, just before parliament rises, she said. “The register was drafted to address a very specific problem which was that it wasn’t always clear whose interests were being represented when lobbying was taking place.

“It is very specifically defined legislation. It doesn’t define lobbyists, but does define lobbying,” she said.

• This article was amended on 6 March 2015. An earlier version referred incorrectly to a parliamentary staff member paid by “lobbyists who represent Shell”. In fact the company referred to advises Shell but does not lobby on its behalf.