By Jim Pickard, Chief Political Correspondent
Meetings between lobbying firms and ministers’ special advisers will have
to be disclosed after a Lib Dem uprising in the House of Lords on Monday
afternoon.
The coalition has been widely criticised for significant loopholes in its
lobbying bill, which is designed to shed light on meetings between
consultants and the government.
For example a statutory register of consultant lobbyists established by the
bill will only include third-party groups – and not in-house public affairs
professionals – and excludes companies for which lobbying is only a small
part of the business.
Under the original wording of the bill, lobbying firms would only have been
forced to disclose a meeting if they met ministers or permanent secretaries.
But 30 Lib Dem peers voted against their own government to ensure that
special advisers – or “spads” – also fall under the legislation. It was the
85th coalition defeat in the upper chamber since the general election in 2010.
There are 98 special advisers in Whitehall, acting as the eyes and ears of
ministers, often creating back channels to communicate with the media,
industry and non-government organisations.
They have often courted controversy. Transport adviser Jo Moore was forced
to resign after the twin attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11,
2001 because she had told colleagues it was a “good day to bury bad news.”
Lord Tyler, the Lib Dem peer behind the rebellion, said that any
experienced lobbyist knew that the best way to influence a minister was to
meet their adviser. He cited the description by former Labour minister
Clare Short of special advisers as “living in the dark”.
“I know that this is also part of their job: to meet outside groups,” he
said. “(But) the public should know who they and their clients are.”
Separately the government fought off an attempt to force ministers to
publish details of who had lobbied them whenever they made a statement on
policy.
It also blocked a move to make the bill cover all civil servants rather
than just permanent secretaries.
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