Unlock Democracy – Demand a robust lobbying register

Posted: September 18, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Link | Tags: , | Leave a comment »

With the advent of a new lobbying scandal, Unlock Democracy are inviting supporters to co-sign a letter to the Minister responsible for publishing Government proposals on lobbying.

From the Unlock Democracy website:

The latest lobbying scandal involving the Department of Energy and Climate Change merely highlights the need for the government to introduce a robust statutory register of lobbying.

New minister Chloe Smith is in charge of publishing new proposals, which are due for publication in the next few months. She can’t afford to miss that deadline; otherwise the chance of introducing new legislation in the next Queen’s Speech will be under threat. We can’t afford to wait another year for her to take action.

Please click here to view and co-sign Unlock Democracy’s letter to Chloe Smith MP

Link: 74,000 people demand lobbying transparency

Posted: April 27, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Consultation, Link | Tags: , | Leave a comment »

Unlock Democracy brings us the news that over 7000 people co-signed their letter to the Government demanding more transparency in government lobbying and 68,000 people signed a 38 Degrees petition:

Today, as the official consultation on proposals to introduce transparency regulations for lobbyists comes to an end, campaigners sent a big message to the government calling for it to rethink its plans.

Unlock Democracy and 38 Degrees handed over a huge petition of over 74,000 signatures* from members of the public calling for an end to secrecy in lobbying.

The petition calls on the government to create a robust compulsory register of lobbyists, which would reveal who is lobbying whom, what is being discussed and how much money is being spent on lobbying. It also calls for the whole of the lobbying industry to be covered by the new rules, not just the minority of agency lobbyists that the government currently proposes.

Over 1,300 members of the public submitted full consultation responses to the government through Unlock Democracy’s website.

Read the full post on the Unlock Democracy website.

Open up lobbying – A thank you to those who attended and helped out

Posted: April 12, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Consultation, Events | Tags: , | Leave a comment »

This is a brief post to say thank you to the people who made it this evening to our public meeting on lobbying transparency, despite the very inclement weather! Many thanks to our guest speakers Tamasin Cave of Spin Watch, Paul Blomfield MP and Cllr Joe Otten. It was great to have so many people (more than 60!) attend and to have so many suggestions and comments from members of the public.

Thank you also to Unlock Democracy for helping to organise and promote the event and to the team at the Quaker Meeting Rooms for hosting us and providing refreshments.

We will be compiling a report of the comments and suggestions made during the meeting and will publish it on this website within the next week.

Please note that the government’s consultation has been extended until next Friday so please submit any suggestions or comments you might have as soon as possible.

Richard Shaw
Webmaster, Sheffield for Democracy