Iain Anderson, Chairman of the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC), has responded to comments by Lord Wallace of Saltaire, Government Whip (and speaking for the Government), following a question yesterday in the House by Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on progress on the introduction of a statutory register of lobbyists.
Lord Wallace said that "We are starting by trying to make consultant lobbyists much more transparent about on whose behalf they are lobbying" and went on to say "If we were to register every single lobbyist of every single company that lobbies directly for its interests, we would have a vast bureaucracy. That is not something that we should undertake lightly."
Iain Anderson said: "The APPC has been working tirelessly over many years to ensure that consultant lobbyists are acting in a transparent and ethical fashion. Our register and Code of Conduct - signed up to by over 80 members - was established for precisely this process. The notion that consultant lobbyists are not publishing our client lists is simply wrong. Indeed, as Lord Wallace himself acknowledged the Government must get better at publication of departmental ministerial meetings. A co-ordinated system of publication across the whole of Government would go a huge way to addressing transparency concerns.
"The fact is that the Lobbying Register will include barely 1% of lobbyists operating in the UK. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone in Parliament - with the exception of ministers - who think that's a satisfactory response to the putative problems the Government identified in justifying this legislation. Rather than defending a flawed register we'd urge the Government to press pause on the new system and review it again in a new parliament."