Meeting of the Parliament 10 March 2016
I rise to move amendment 12, speak to amendments 15 and 14, and support George Adam’s amendment 23.
The Government bill that the Parliament has before it suggests that only communications made orally, that is, face-to-face communication, videoconference or the like, should be deemed to be lobbying. In evidence to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, Dr Dinan of Spinwatch and the alliance for lobbying transparency and ethics regulation European Union—ALTER-EU—described the restriction to face-to-face communication as “ludicrous”, while Unlock Democracy described the current definition as
“a gift to those who might wish to keep their activity out of the public gaze”.
Professor Raj Chari of Trinity College, Dublin, an expert in the area, advised us that he was unaware of any legislation anywhere else that contained such a restriction. Carers Trust Scotland presumed charitably that it must just be an oversight. However, it is not an oversight. It is instead the policy position of the Scottish Government.
As a result of the evidence heard during stage 1, the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, of which I am a member, suggested that the Scottish Government should consider including other forms of communication, such as emails, letters and telephone communication.
At stage 2, I lodged amendments designed to give effect to the stated recommendations of the majority of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee members, but unfortunately the committee chose to vote down those amendments by five votes to one—so much for the independence of our committees.
Today, I again move amendments designed to ensure that communication by email, by telephone and in writing will be considered to be lobbying. Without those amendments, the bill becomes a sham.
Before members press their voting buttons, I ask them to consider this. We have all been lobbied about the bill. We have been lobbied by a range of organisations that have different viewpoints. How many of the organisations that lobbied us spoke to us face to face and how many sent emails? I think that we know the answer to that. We also know the power of electronic and written communication. To omit that from the bill is plain wrong.
I move amendment 12.
14:15