If we don’t know who is pulling the strings, how can we hold our elected politicians to account?
There have been scandals between professional lobbyists, politicians and civil servants reported on a regular basis in our press. Lobbyists have apparently been courting politicians and officials to change laws and regulations or award them, or clients, government contracts that are often against the public interest.
Lobbying is a proper part of a healthy democracy but, most of it is currently conducted in secrecy. Thus, you and I can’t make an informed decision about what is or isn’t appropriate behaviour by these lobbyists.
The solution is a public register of lobbying to let us know who is being paid to influence key people in government. A Register is a common tool for encouraging transparency as they ensure that certain basic information is published at regular intervals.
The UK Government currently has a consultation on this issue but in the view of some campaigners this is a sham as the proposed rules only cover less than a quarter of the entire lobby industry. To address these concerns a much stricter register must be put in place.
For more information please go here and join the campaign to improve the proposals.
Related articles
- The government’s ‘transparency’ is clear as mud (leftfootforward.org)
