CIPR_No_Rules_Britannia - Flipbook - Page 21
Conclusion
While lobbying is an essential feature of a healthy democracy,
this paper has demonstrated that Westminster is an outlier in how
it regulates lobbying. The current legislation introduced in 2014
does not go far enough to ensure that the process of lobbying
is transparent and, indeed, inherently fails to encapsulate the
majority of lobbying activities.
This legislation, in the narrow way it categorises those
who lobby and those who can be lobbied, means that
Westminster regulates far less when compared to other
similar democracies around the world. As well as this,
the legislation does not come equipped with the powers
to ensure that where rules are broken, perpetrators are
punished. The result is a system which is opaque and this
opacity can lead to scandal and corruption.
Comparisons with international registers show that
regulation can be introduced to make the system fairer
and transparent to the public, as well as agreeable for
those that would be required to register.
While it is clear that lobbying and the regulation of
lobbying is not the sole, or even the primary, cause
of this decline in trust, our opaque system is also a
contributing factor to why voters are increasingly
turning away from the political process and refusing
to trust elected of昀椀cials, who in most instances only
have good intentions.
Failure to address this simply adds fuel to the
perception that our government is not only
corrupt but is deliberately so. And it creates
the impression, on the world stage at least,
of a no rules Britannia.
A Survation poll revealed that 63% of people believe
UK politics is corrupt. Additionally, a 2021 poll for
Transparency International found that 76% of people
think wealthy individuals frequently use their in昀氀uence on
the government for personal gain and that stricter rules
are needed to prevent this.
This legislation, in the narrow way it
categorises those who lobby and those who
can be lobbied, means that Westminster
regulates far less when compared to other
similar democracies around the world.
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CIPR / No Rules Britannia?
