Lobbying in the United Kingdom
Current levels of lobbying are causing concern as is the so-called "revolving door" by which industry professionals move rapidly between legislative and commercial roles in the same sectors, creating potential conflict of interests.
[7] In 2014, Parliament passed the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act, requiring statutory registration of professional lobbyists.
[12] In 1903 the Suffragettes, whose motto was "Deeds not Words", heckled ministers, displayed banners, and used both violent and non-violent direct action; equal voting rights for women were achieved with the Representation of the People Act 1928.
After Labour's victory and a meeting between Ecclestone and Tony Blair, the Department of Health sought exemption for Formula One from the European Union's proposed ban on tobacco advertising.
[6] Jonathan Aitken, previously Minister of State for Defence Procurement under John Major in 1992 was jailed in 1999 in relation to the Arms-to-Iraq scandal.
The complaint related back to August 2007 when David Cameron's chief fundraiser used a researcher pass allotted to a Conservative peer (Lord Harris of Peckham) to gain access to facilities inside the Palace of Westminster.
[21] A July 2007 freedom of information request [22] showed that Heathrow Airport Holdings (BAA) executives met the Department for Transport 117 times between 2002 and 2007, including 24 meetings with the Secretary of State.
[24] In 2008, supporters of the anti-aviation lobby group Plane Stupid managed to get onto the roof of the Palace of Westminster and dropped a banner reading 'BAA HQ' as a reference to the close relationship BAA had with government.
[25] In January 2009 Labour MP John Grogan claimed there was an "intricate web" linking BAA, British Airways and Whitehall which had a direct influence on government policy resulting in the approval of a third runway at Heathrow Airport.
[29] In February 2010 there were several separate developments: In March 2010 Dispatches and The Sunday Times recorded four Members of Parliament offering lobbying in return for influence with the Cabinet.
The committee chairman Lord Lang disagreed and the information was published on their website with the note "Publication delayed due to market sensitivities".
A 2009 investigation by The Guardian found that he had put his multimillion-pound income through "an obscure partnership structure called Windrush Ventures, which enabled him to avoid publishing normal company accounts".
[44] In December 2011, The Independent newspaper reported that lobbying agency Bell Pottinger claimed to have been responsible for a variety of activities on behalf of clients that were considered not in the public interest including the manipulation of Google searches and Wikipedia pages.
[7] In August 2009 Transparency International UK received a grant from the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust to assess the level of corruption in the United Kingdom for the first time.
[49] One motivation for research, which is expected to take 12 months is the "anecdotal evidence and reports in the media suggest that: a) there is a widespread belief that certain institutions and processes within the United Kingdom are vulnerable to corruption, for example, funding of political parties".
