London,
11
February
2015
|
11:48
Europe/London

CIPR Manifesto: Seven opportunities for the future

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has published the CIPR Manifesto, detailing a bold vision for the next UK government to deliver a strong economy and fairer society over its next term.

Launched at Tuesday’s President’s Reception at the Institute of Directors, celebrating 10 years of Chartered status for the CIPR, the CIPR Manifesto aims to provoke an open and informed debate, focusing on seven important opportunities for the future.

  • Lobbying
    Calling for Government to actively support the development of high professional standards and accountability in lobbying, and work with the profession to build stronger institutions that can regulate the ethical conduct of lobbyists, supporting and maintaining the voluntary codes of conduct.
  • The future of corporate governance
    Calling for Government to assist in the creation of a new corporate culture in the UK based on wider value creation and with a firm understanding of the importance of relationships in business decision making.
  • Independent practitioners and future skills needs
    Calling for Government to allow tax deductibility for any kind of training undertaken by the self-employed and allow tax deductibility for any kind of training for small businesses.
  • The gender pay gap
    Calling for Government to tackle to gender pay and inequality directly by strengthening the Equal Pay Act, ensuring it is applied universally.
  • Data protection
    Calling for Government to think beyond the scope of current EU Data Protection Law and lead a national conversation about how we can develop a coherent and satisfactory framework for responding to emerging technology and address the rapid changes in the market for data.
  • Internet governance and broadband
    Calling for Government to build support for a multi-stakeholder approach to internet governance, and pledge a greater amount of investment in the UK’s critical digital infrastructure.
Sarah Pinch FCIPR, CIPR President 2015
The next UK Government should seek to restart the dialogue with stakeholders on the role of lobbying in our democracy, and actively support the development of a highly skilled, qualified and ethically competent group of public affairs professionals that serve the needs of a modern complex democracy.

Ensuring that the law that introduced a statutory register of consultant lobbyists genuinely provides the public with more information about how policies and laws are shaped should be considered a priority. Failure to do so will result in lobbying genuinely being the next big scandal waiting to happen.

Looking outside of our traditional areas of influence, some of the really big questions facing our society – internet governance, data protection, the gender pay gap – have not so far figured large in political debate, but our future government will need to take a lead on finding answers to them.

Most of these issues are not ones for which a government can simply legislate, and most of them do not have a simple, straightforward solution. Rather, they require an open and informed public conversation which will allow us to arrive at a sustainable set of policies and maintain the UK’s world lead in what are critically important areas.
Sarah Pinch FCIPR, CIPR President 2015

The CIPR Manifesto is available to download in electronic format at www.cipr.co.uk/manifesto and in hard-copy from CIPR Public Relations Centre, London.

Notes to editors

Notes to editors

About the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)Founded in 1948, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) is the Royal Chartered professional body for public relations practitioners in the UK and overseas. The CIPR is the largest membership organisation for PR practitioners outside of North America. By size of turnover and number of individually registered members, we are the leading representative body for the PR profession and industry in Europe.

The CIPR advances professionalism in public relations by making its members accountable to their employers and the public through a code of conduct and searchable public register, setting standards through training, qualifications, awards and the production of best practice and skills guidance, facilitating Continuing Professional Development (CPD), and awarding Chartered Public Relations Practitioner status (Chart.PR).