I associate myself with the comments of the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen) about the way in which the debate has been organised and the high number of amendments that will not be scrutinised at all. Ironically, the Prime Minister brought forward the Bill saying that he wanted to avoid the next scandal. I am sure I am not alone in thinking that the way in which we are being forced to handle this debate is in itself a scandal.
I will speak briefly to amendment 152, the purpose of which is to bring depth to the Bill by focusing on financial disclosure. I believe that there should be a requirement to disclose a good-faith estimate of how much money has been spent on lobbying activity. The Minister said that the purpose of the Bill was to shine the light of transparency on lobbying. To my mind, we would be doing only half the job if we did not ensure that we had an idea of what was being spent on lobbying. I will try again to persuade her that requiring information on how much money is spent on lobbying on a quarterly basis would be proportionate and not burdensome.
The money being spent is the clearest indication of how committed an industry or organisation is to influencing a particular issue. It is also a clear indicator that Government decision making on an issue must be carefully scrutinised. Money also reveals the scale, disparities and trends in lobbying, and financial disclosure of the amount spent on lobbying would help us assess the spending gap between business and civil society groups, for example, or multinationals and non-profit organisations lobbying for Government contracts. Such a requirement need not be a bureaucratic burden. Work by Unlock Democracy on a mock filing showed that it would take about 20 minutes to prepare. That already happens in the US, and I have heard no good argument for it not to happen here. As a result, in the US it is much easier to see what is going on.
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Simply by looking at lobbying expenditures from the Senate Office of Public Records, we see that last year the US tobacco industry spent more than $26.5 million on lobbying. Those figures also reveal a long-term trend. Although exact levels have fluctuated, the industry has consistently spent more than $20 million a year for the past 10 years. By contrast, in the UK we know only that the Government have retreated from their support for plain packaging, amid rumours that multimillion pound lobbying contracts have been signed, from press reports or behind-the-scenes tip-offs. We have all heard the allegations that last November, after his appointment as the Prime Minister’s electoral strategy adviser, Lynton Crosby signed a contract between Philip Morris International and Crosby Textor for lobbying in the UK that could be worth many millions, but we have nothing the public can use properly to hold the Government to account. We should not have to pick our way through
rumours, tip-offs, allegations and counterclaims to find the truth; it should be officially gathered and openly published for all to see.
Equally, we know that the taxpayer-funded Royal Bank of Scotland spent more than £2.5 million on lobbying Washington about financial regulation laws, but we know it from documents released by the US Government that list lobbying activity in the US and state the lobbyist, client, amount spent and the subject of the lobbying. Therefore, even though we have a stake in that bank we have no right to know how much it has spent in the UK; we have that information only because of financial disclosure requirements in the US lobbying register, and we have no idea how much RBS or any UK bank spends on lobbying the UK Government.
US rules also reveal lobbying trends or stories. For example, the oil and gas industry spent more than $140 million on lobbying in the US in 2012—well over double, and getting close to treble, the $52 million it spent in 2004. Therefore, an important story is revealed. We see climate change rising up the political agenda as science shows the risks to be even greater, and we see the economic benefits of cleaner renewable energy and the challenge that poses to incumbent utilities business models. We also see the oil and gas industry redouble its lobbying efforts and throw tens of millions of pounds into the process. Information about the industry’s spending tells us far more than just knowing that it has had certain meetings; it is a vital part of the equation.
Amendment 56, tabled in the name of the Chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, is linked to the money and financial disclosure provision. I will conclude by saying that I strongly support that amendment, and if we want the lobbying register genuinely to increase transparency and for the Bill to have genuine depth and purpose, the subject matter and the money must be recorded and revealed.