Joint statement from the CIPR, PRCA and APPC

The Government’s new statutory register of lobbyists must be clarified so that potential registrants are able to comply with the law. Our members want clarity on the exact nature of activity that will trigger the requirement to register and about the cost of registration. By excluding all in-house lobbyists, and only triggering registration when a select group of policy-makers are lobbied, the result is that only a small fraction of lobbyists and policy-makers will be included in the statutory register, meaning the cost of registration risks being prohibitive.

We welcome that consultancies captured by the statutory register will have to declare whether they have signed up to a voluntary code. This is a positive step that for the first time provides statutory underpinning for existing self-regulatory regimes which are committed to integrity and upholding high ethical standards. However, despite the Government’s assurances, it is not clear how this will support existing voluntary registers, such as the UKPAC, APPC, CIPR and PRCA registers, which currently provide more information about lobbying than the Statutory Register will.

We would like to work closely with the Cabinet Office over the coming months to ensure that those responsible for implementing the legislation are both made aware of our members’ concerns and address any complexities and ambiguities that arise in the development and implementation of the new register.

Michael Burrell, Chairman of the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC)
Alastair McCapra, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
Francis Ingham, Director General of the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA)