Lobbying Transparency 2023-11-23
2023-11-23
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Direct Answer
▸
Context
There is a need for increased transparency regarding business lobbying activities, which has raised concerns about fairness and ethics.
What steps he is taking to increase transparency of lobbying by businesses. The Government outlined wide-ranging improvements to transparency in lobbying in their policy statement “Strengthening Ethics and Integrity in Central Government”, published in July. They include revising guidance to widen the range of lobbying engagements declared by Departments.
The Government outlined wide-ranging improvements to transparency in lobbying in their policy statement “Strengthening Ethics and Integrity in Central Government”, which was published in July. They include revising guidance to widen the range of lobbying engagements declared by Departments, and linked reforms of the consultant lobbying framework.
▸
Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
▸
Context
There are concerns that the current lobbying rules allow for preferential treatment of individuals with connections to the government, affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bidding for contracts. The Procurement Act 2023 is expected to ease this process for SMEs.
If you are one of the tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises bidding for contracts from the public sector, you will be met with a wall of bureaucratic paperwork designed to prevent relationships between the contractor and the service provider. If you are an ex-Prime Minister, you can make dozens of phone calls on behalf of an interest in which you seem to have been involved, including nine texts to the current Prime Minister. Is it not clear that that was reprehensible behaviour, and that the lobbying rules allowed it to happen? When will the Minister tighten the lobbying rules properly to prevent people from being able to benefit from the old system of “It is not what you know, but who you know”? The Procurement Act 2023 aims to simplify procurement processes for SMEs.
I refer the hon. Gentleman to my previous answer; we have published a document called “Strengthening Ethics and Integrity in Central Government”. On small and medium-sized enterprises, I am delighted to be able to tell the hon. Gentleman that the Procurement Act 2023, which recently received Royal Assent, will make life much easier for SMEs that want to do business with the Government and get a share of the £300 billion of public procurement this Government have to offer.
▸
Assessment & feedback
The specific ask about tightening lobbying rules was not directly addressed.
Response accuracy