The Scotsman

22 August 2001

Letters page

Essential to regulate lobbyists

The Scottish Council for Development and Industry claims that plans to set up a register for lobbyists are unworkable. On the contrary, lobbying regulation exists and works smoothly in a wide variety of other political systems. In the US, for example, there is regulation at the federal, state and even the county level. Regulation of lobbying is the only way to ensure a measure of transparency in Scottish political culture.

The SCDI submission looks like a rearguard action by vested interests to stop the Scottish Parliament taking significant steps towards the openness we were all promised with devolution.

The notion that the regulation of the world of lobbying may breach the European Convention of Human Rights is also misplaced. Article 8 on the right to privacy is intended to protect personal privacy, not that of large corporations. In any case, to breach it would require a government to take actions deemed 'disproportionate'.

Disclosure of lobbying tactics and spending as proposed by the Standards Committee is intended to prevent undue influence on parliament. According to the Scottish Human Rights Centre, disclosure is 'probably the least intrusive and most effective means of achieving this end'.

We welcome the SCDI suggestion that MSPs' (and ministers') diaries be open to public scrutiny, but this is hardly a new suggestion. It was one pioneered by the Standards Committee itself.

If we want a fully functioning democracy, it is surely not enough to put the onus of good conduct on representatives in Parliament alone. We can also have a reasonable expectation that lobbying organisations like the SCDI who deal with MSPs will observe high standards themselves.

Dr. David Miller, William Dinan and Prof. Philip Schlesinger

Stirling Media Research Institute

Stirling University