UK Parliament / Open data

Parliamentary Lobbying

Adjournment debate on Wednesday, 2 November 2011, in the House of Commons, led by Paul Flynn. The answering member was Mark Harper.
Westminster Hall adjournment debate on Parliamentary lobbying.
Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
534 c265-89WH 
Session
2010-12
Department
Cabinet Office
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
Proceeding contributions
Mark Harper | 534 c288WH (Link to this contribution) My understanding is that all the meetings up to the end of April this year have been published. Howe...
Lord Mann | 534 c288WH (Link to this contribution) I have not put that argument. Lobbyists are lobbyists and trade union lobbyists are lobbyists. Howev...

Show all contributions (96)
Mark Harper | 534 c288-9WH (Link to this contribution) But every trade union official who seeks to influence Members and Ministers is engaged in lobbying, ...
Mark Harper | 534 c288WH (Link to this contribution) Yes, and I am very pleased to do so. The hon. Member for Newport West also referred to Ministers wh...
Robert Halfon | 534 c288WH (Link to this contribution) I welcome my hon. Friend's remarks about the advisory committee, but does he not think it would be b...
Mark Harper | 534 c288WH (Link to this contribution) I listened very carefully to what my hon. Friend said about the inquiry that the Public Administrati...
Thomas Docherty | 534 c288WH (Link to this contribution) The Minister referred to the website data.gov.uk. I have just had a chance to go on that website and...
Mark Harper | 534 c286-7WH (Link to this contribution) It was new clause 76 to the Companies Bill 2006, which was debated on 18 October 2006. Yes, the hon....
Mark Durkan | 534 c286WH (Link to this contribution) Is there not an element of ““There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza”” in all this? As the Minister ...
Mark Harper | 534 c286WH (Link to this contribution) Let me come on to that at in a moment because I want to set out my thoughts logically. I thank the ...
Wayne David | 534 c284-6WH (Link to this contribution) If the hon. Gentleman will bear with me, I will address that point in a moment. It is important for...
Mark Harper | 534 c286WH (Link to this contribution) It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. I congratulate the hon. Membe...
Robert Halfon | 534 c284WH (Link to this contribution) Although the hon. Gentleman rightly urges the Government to take action on this and for us to fulfil...
Wayne David | 534 c287-8WH (Link to this contribution) I simply make the point that we have an ideal opportunity to make progress now because there is a ge...
Paul Flynn | 534 c287WH (Link to this contribution) The Minister has eight minutes to build some kind of consensual approach to the subject, instead of ...
Mark Harper | 534 c287WH (Link to this contribution) I would have slightly longer to respond if the hon. Gentleman had not interrupted me. I was coming o...
Paul Flynn | 534 c267-8WH (Link to this contribution) Is this ““Mastermind””? I really cannot account for the tens of thousands of votes I have taken part...
Kwasi Kwarteng | 534 c268WH (Link to this contribution) Surely in that case it is the job of constituents to vote the offending Member out. The issue is tra...
Alun Cairns | 534 c267WH (Link to this contribution) In 2006 there was a proposal to amend the Bill that became the Companies Act 2006, which would have ...
Paul Flynn | 534 c269-70WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is entirely right. We cannot deal in excuses and half truths any more, because of the...
Lord Mann | 534 c269WH (Link to this contribution) On the case that my hon. Friend cites, is he aware that that Minister was performing a quasi-judicia...
Paul Flynn | 534 c269WH (Link to this contribution) Indeed. I read it with some interest. Yesterday, three very senior figures, including past Cabinet S...
Chris Bryant | 534 c269WH (Link to this contribution) Is not one of the ironies of the Werritty case the fact that Sir Gus O'Donnell's report declared tha...
Paul Flynn | 534 c268-9WH (Link to this contribution) No. The position is this. Someone may want to lobby on a subject, but what a Member is allowed to do...
Paul Flynn | 534 c268WH (Link to this contribution) Yes, but the problem is that the public will, with some justification, believe the worst of us after...
Paul Flynn | 534 c265-6WH (Link to this contribution) Thank you for calling me to speak, Mr Robertson."““It's an issue that crosses party lines and has ta...
Paul Flynn | 534 c266-7WH (Link to this contribution) That is exactly what we need, and it was the main recommendation of the Select Committee. I hope th...
Andrew Smith | 534 c266WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate and, as ever, I am following his remarks with ...
Paul Flynn | 534 c267WH (Link to this contribution) Indeed, it is not. That, of course, goes on as part of the system. Lobbying lubricates the parliamen...
Jim Shannon | 534 c267WH (Link to this contribution) We MPs are regularly contacted by interested bodies. We do not necessarily have all the information ...
Paul Flynn | 534 c266WH (Link to this contribution) The answer is yes. Trade unions are lobbyists, as are charities and all kinds of bodies. The main a...
Alun Cairns | 534 c266WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing such an important debate. The definition of lobbying i...
Paul Flynn | 534 c266WH (Link to this contribution) One MP who gave evidence to the Committee was taking £70,000 a year from a commercial company. [Inte...
David Simpson | 534 c266WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on obtaining this debate. I have much sympathy with what he is say...
Lord Mann | 534 c277WH (Link to this contribution) I would not include them, in the same way that I would not include small business owners in the same...
Thomas Docherty | 534 c276-7WH (Link to this contribution) Would my hon. Friend also include those people who have worked for trade unions in this sphere, for ...
Kwasi Kwarteng | 534 c276WH (Link to this contribution) What does the hon. Gentleman propose as a measure to stop that career development, because it is cle...
Lord Mann | 534 c275-6WH (Link to this contribution) I listened with some amazement to the hon. Member for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire (Simon...
Robert Halfon | 534 c278WH (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to serve under you today, Mr Robertson. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member fo...
Lord Mann | 534 c277-8WH (Link to this contribution) The Minister says ““double standards””. That is what the Government are attempting to do; they are a...
Simon Hart | 534 c273-4WH (Link to this contribution) I suspect Mr Robertson may get at us if we drift off lobby groups too obviously. All I will say is t...
Denis MacShane | 534 c273WH (Link to this contribution) The Leveson inquiry is investigating this matter. There is the huge question whether there needs to ...
Robert Halfon | 534 c274WH (Link to this contribution) I note what my hon. Friend has said about lobbying by charities. Although many charities do a remark...
Simon Hart | 534 c273WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has more recent experience of the organisation than me.
Andrew Smith | 534 c274WH (Link to this contribution) On charities, what aspect of registration, transparency and financial disclosure does the hon. Gentl...
Simon Hart | 534 c274WH (Link to this contribution) There is absolutely no problem with transparency. I was also involved in setting up a rural charity,...
Lord Cryer | 534 c274WH (Link to this contribution) I agree with a lot of what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but much of the speech by my hon. Friend th...
Simon Hart | 534 c274-5WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a reasonable point. However, I am not as convinced as others that simply be...
Denis MacShane | 534 c271WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend said a moment ago that we should be much more puritanical. I think that I am a Labour...
Paul Flynn | 534 c271WH (Link to this contribution) No, they certainly did not give me money. I hope that the hon. Gentleman is not suggesting that.
Paul Flynn | 534 c272WH (Link to this contribution) What is wrong with it is the incestuous relationship between Parliament and the lobbying world. Many...
Speaker | 534 c272WH (Link to this contribution) Order. Before we go any further, let me say that a number of people wish to speak in this debate. Th...
Margot James | 534 c271-2WH (Link to this contribution) I share the hon. Gentleman's concern for transparency, and I am sure that a number of the cases to w...
Simon Hart | 534 c272-3WH (Link to this contribution) I will start by declaring an interest: I am a former lobbyist and an unpaid board member of a group ...
Paul Flynn | 534 c270WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is going to mention Libya.
Robert Halfon | 534 c270WH (Link to this contribution) No, I am not. I thank my hon. Friend for his remarks and I congratulate him on securing the debate....
Gregory Campbell | 534 c270WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing the debate. He has outlined the need for people to kno...
Paul Flynn | 534 c270WH (Link to this contribution) I agree entirely with the hon. Gentleman. That is precisely what we should do. We must take a purita...
Simon Hart | 534 c270-1WH (Link to this contribution) I have spent the past 18 months encouraging constituents to lobby me, either as individuals or in gr...
Paul Flynn | 534 c271WH (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to hear from a former lobbyist. I believe that the hon. Gentleman's previous career wa...
Simon Hart | 534 c271WH (Link to this contribution) If I may correct the hon. Gentleman, I recall that he was rather supportive of a donation of £1 mill...
Paul Flynn | 534 c271WH (Link to this contribution) I certainly supported all animal welfare groups for many years in my political capacity, which is wh...
Robert Halfon | 534 c280WH (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr Robertson. That seems to be a case of fatism. Is that not inappropriate?
Chris Bryant | 534 c280WH (Link to this contribution) I warmly congratulate the comrades, my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn), and the...
Lord Mann | 534 c280WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman is wrong. The concept, and the word, is not ““condemned””; it is about pointing t...
Robert Halfon | 534 c280WH (Link to this contribution) I agree with the hon. Gentleman, and the answer is that there must be openness and transparency, but...
Denis MacShane | 534 c279WH (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman accept from me that it is not so much ex-Ministers who get these jobs, but s...
Paul Flynn | 534 c278WH (Link to this contribution) It should be clear to my hon. Friend that that is not part of our concern. I have tweeted him about ...
Robert Halfon | 534 c278-9WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend's wit has no bounds, which is why I enjoy sitting on the Select Committee with him so...
Robert Halfon | 534 c278WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my honourable comrade on the Public Administration Committee on his remarks today. Un...
Wayne David | 534 c283-4WH (Link to this contribution) I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn) on securing the debate, which...
Speaker | 534 c280WH (Link to this contribution) That is not a point of order.
Chris Bryant | 534 c282-3WH (Link to this contribution) That is a good point. Members of Select Committees that publish influential reports are often target...
Speaker | 534 c283WH (Link to this contribution) I said that I would call the Front-Bench spokesmen at 20 minutes to 11, but I will give a few minute...
George Eustice | 534 c283WH (Link to this contribution) I will be as brief as possible. I worked in the public affairs industry for a year in 2009, but for...
Speaker | 534 c283WH (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for his brevity.
Chris Bryant | 534 c280-1WH (Link to this contribution) We need to remember that, in essence, we politicians are all lobbyists. We go through lobbies and tr...
Paul Flynn | 534 c281WH (Link to this contribution) The main opposition to any reform comes from those who wish to muddy the issue and suggest that we w...
Chris Bryant | 534 c281-2WH (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend misunderstands me, I suspect. I do not seek to muddy reform; I want reform. I want a ...
Thomas Docherty | 534 c282WH (Link to this contribution) On the point about influence, does my hon. Friend think that that should apply to Select Committee C...
Simon Hart | 534 c268WH (Link to this contribution) Would the hon. Gentleman consider it permissible to do that for nothing?
Lord Mann | 534 c276WH (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman will want to listen to my speech. He may have a ““career”” in this House, but I h...
Simon Hart | 534 c274WH (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend up to a point. One purpose of the charities, however, is to persuade Gov...
Paul Flynn | 534 c271WH (Link to this contribution) The situation is quite clear. If that happens, anyone who goes out, including staff, should not add ...
Paul Flynn | 534 c270WH (Link to this contribution) My comrade Robert—as I call him—and I serve together on the Public Administration Committee, and we ...
Robert Halfon | 534 c279-80WH (Link to this contribution) I agree with the right hon. Gentleman. There are scandalous cases of senior civil servants walking o...
Subjects
Disclosure of information
Conduct
Pay
Members
Lobbying
Standards
Public Administration Select Committee
Link
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