One of the ongoing issues about the regulation of public affairs consultants is that there are many lobbyists that are still unaware of the plans being developed for statutory and voluntary registration.
Public affairs is an interesting discipline, for some it is part of the public relations profession and for others it is part of the political world. And yesterday I was in the company of a few practitioners that came from a third way.
Public affairs is an interesting discipline, for some it is part of the public relations profession and for others it is part of the political world. And yesterday I was in the company of a few practitioners that came from a third way.
On Friday I attended an event run by the Association of Scottish Public Affairs at the Scottish Parliament.
One of the sessions was on registration, and the debate involved a number of people from trade organisations and professional bodies. They had all taken a different route into public affairs, being interested in public policy development for professional reasons but not considering themselves to be either PR people or part of politics.
The issue for them is that they do not have a connection into the PR and public affairs bodies that are currently debating regulation and registration. They are not members of the CIPR, and of course they are not members of the consultancy organisations.
They were surprised to hear that the plans for regulation could involve them. They were also concerned that their position may not be fully represented in the discussions.
And as we find with anyone who is introduced to the idea of the register they identify about thirty reasons why it just seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to politicians behaving badly.
As I have mentioned in earlier posts, my personal question is about why the state should regulate my relationship with my clients. Now I can see that contacts with elected politicians may be an area of public interest, but really my role is about political research, analysis and policy development. I would always seek to have my client meet with the politicians, not least that they are the ones with an interest in the issue and can speak with authenticity. But any sensible client is going to understand that they should use my advice to build their own relationship with the politician.
I guess that Think Tanks will need to think about registering, as they often seek to influence Government policy.
So I am not sure whether the state should be interested in what I say in private discussion to clients, but we seem to be heading for some type of regulation. And in my current role in a law firm, where I am bound by strict rules on client confidentiality, it has to be statutory.
But back to our discussion with the lobbyists in the trade organisations and voluntary sector. They had a few questions that it was hard to answer. When does someone become a professional lobbyist? What about policy+public affairs officers? How do you make a division between differing roles? In smaller organisations, where the chief executive and senior managers carry out much of the public affairs work, who is registered? What about those that carry out out some occasional public affairs support for their favourite cause? What will the cost be for small charities and voluntary organisations? Are we going to create a new tier of 'registered lobbyists' that use this new badge as a selling point?
I think that outside of the membership of the PR and PA associations there continues to be a lack of awareness. And when this is combined with a real lack of understanding about what is being regulated, we have a recipe for confusion.
And as we find with anyone who is introduced to the idea of the register they identify about thirty reasons why it just seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to politicians behaving badly.
As I have mentioned in earlier posts, my personal question is about why the state should regulate my relationship with my clients. Now I can see that contacts with elected politicians may be an area of public interest, but really my role is about political research, analysis and policy development. I would always seek to have my client meet with the politicians, not least that they are the ones with an interest in the issue and can speak with authenticity. But any sensible client is going to understand that they should use my advice to build their own relationship with the politician.
I guess that Think Tanks will need to think about registering, as they often seek to influence Government policy.
So I am not sure whether the state should be interested in what I say in private discussion to clients, but we seem to be heading for some type of regulation. And in my current role in a law firm, where I am bound by strict rules on client confidentiality, it has to be statutory.
But back to our discussion with the lobbyists in the trade organisations and voluntary sector. They had a few questions that it was hard to answer. When does someone become a professional lobbyist? What about policy+public affairs officers? How do you make a division between differing roles? In smaller organisations, where the chief executive and senior managers carry out much of the public affairs work, who is registered? What about those that carry out out some occasional public affairs support for their favourite cause? What will the cost be for small charities and voluntary organisations? Are we going to create a new tier of 'registered lobbyists' that use this new badge as a selling point?
I think that outside of the membership of the PR and PA associations there continues to be a lack of awareness. And when this is combined with a real lack of understanding about what is being regulated, we have a recipe for confusion.
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