I shall not give way again on this point.
In addition, if only individuals are required to register, there will be considerable risk of a knock-on impact on the Government’s ability to raise the necessary funding for the register. It will be interesting to hear what the Minister will say about that.
5.30 pm
My final series of points relate to amendment 9, which stands in my name, and amendment 48, which is in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen). We recognise that lobbying also includes advising others and facilitating meetings. Yet the Government have failed to include such activity in the Bill—perhaps because they have no idea what lobbying consists of, having failed to conduct a proper consultation.
It is clear that much of the activity of lobbyists is not made up of face-to-face encounters with Ministers or permanent secretaries, but of giving advice to their clients about how to proceed, whose door to knock on, which telephone to call and which café in Portcullis House a person should be sitting in if they want to bump into someone whom they wish to influence.
Communication, facilitation of meetings and giving advice all amount to lobbying activity, but all are excluded by the Bill. The substance of amendments 9 and 48 relate to that issue. We have listened to the industry and campaigners for transparency, who have all said that the Government have misunderstood the nature of lobbying. That is why we, like the Select Committee, have tabled an amendment to include lobbying activities not identified in the Bill: advising others how to lobby or arranging or facilitating meetings with key decision makers.
As Iain Anderson, the deputy chair of the Association of Professional Political Consultants, recognised—again, this is the industry’s view, not mine—the vast majority of lobbying is not about meeting Ministers or permanent secretaries but advising organisations about how the political process proceeds. That is why, under the Government’s definition, more than 95% of all lobbying activity will simply not be covered by the legislation.