Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Lobbying Transparency

Thursday 23 November 2023 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Government published a policy statement called "Strengthening Ethics and Integrity in Central Government" in July.
  • Policy improvements include revising guidance to increase the range of lobbying engagements declared by Departments.
  • Procurement Act 2023 recently received Royal Assent, addressing concerns related to public sector contracts.

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Jon Trickett Lab Normanton and Hemsworth
Standards & Ethics
Context

There is a need for increased transparency regarding business lobbying activities, which has raised concerns about fairness and ethics.

Question

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.

Answer from Alex Burghart

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.

Answered
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Q2 Jon Trickett Lab Normanton and Hemsworth
Business & Trade Standards & Ethics
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.

Question

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.

Answer from Alex Burghart

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.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific ask about tightening lobbying rules was not directly addressed.

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