Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
The Lobbying (Scotland) Act 2016 was passed without division in this Parliament 10 years ago last week. In 2021, the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee took evidence and provided a report on the operation of the 2016 act. Between March and September 2023, at the request of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, the Scottish Parliament information centre undertook a further partial evaluation of the act, which was published in October 2023.
The SPPA Committee has not been able to undertake a further, fuller review in this session, but it is expected to do so early in the next parliamentary session. That is the point at which the next corporate body would be engaged in relation to the SPCB’s role in providing the staffing and resources that are required for the lobbying register.