Chauvel Charles: Lobbying Disclosure Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chauvel Charles: Lobbying Disclosure Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3967. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHARLES CHAUVEL (Labour) 
: 
 As other members have begun their contributions to the debate I would like to follow in that tradition by congratulating Holly Walker on the drawing of her bill the Lobbying Disclosure Bill for debate in the House. 
I will say to her what I said to Sue Kedgley when the bill was originally drawn and before it was transferred into Holly Walker’s name. Members on this side of the House are very supportive of the idea of greater transparency and bringing that greater transparency to the House in the lobbying area and if that can be done in a workable way then Labour members will look forward to supporting the legislation further. But what we cannot do I think is ignore the very real concerns that have been expressed to us about the practicability of the bill and that is especially the case with the community and voluntary sector. The number of non-governmental organisations and voluntary organisations that have come to me and other Labour members and expressed real concern about the sort of reporting burden that this legislation would put on them simply cannot be ignored. That is why what I have done is try to crystallise some of the objections that have been expressed to us and that we sympathise with in Supplementary Order Paper 76 which I have tabled at this first reading so that Labour’s objections to the legislation can be clear from the outset and we can hopefully get some changes under discussion as early as possible. 
The three fundamental changes that the Supplementary Order Paper in my name would effect are as follows. First of all it would make it very clear that the target of this legislation ought to be lobbying for commercial purposes. In my view and in the view of my colleagues there is simply no public interest or no similar public interest in subjecting big tobacco big alcohol big pharmaceutical or big food to the same sorts of light transparency requirements as might apply to a small NGO that is delivering social services or health services or is representing a particular philosophical religious or other belief. 
So the first thing that my Supplementary Order Paper would do is it would make it very clear that the focus of transparency registration and what have you ought to be on those big commercial interests because that is the area where under our laws at the moment there is insufficient transparency. NGOs voluntary organisations and incorporated societies are accountable to their members. It is very clear through their reporting what they do from day to day. That is not the case even in respect of a corporate let alone an association of corporates or other commercial interests. And I do agree that there ought to be a focus on those sorts of interests and a better idea amongst the public about how they are seeking to exert—and indeed are exerting—influence. So that is the first change that we would want to see. 
The second change is one that I think Holly Walker has conceded needs to be made and that is that it needs to be absolutely clear that communications between members of Parliament and constituents are not caught by this legislation. We all know—because we have all been in this position—that members of the public come to us in confidence to express concerns to express a desire to see us take up causes on their behalf that they would not want the public to know about because they are deeply personal to them. It has to be absolutely clear that that communication remains inviolate. 
The final amendment that I have foreshadowed is an attempt to make the exemption that currently exists for public servants workable by extending it to all those who work in the wider State services. 
I hope we can make something good of this bill. I apprehend from the speeches across the House that it will go to the Government Administration Committee. I hope that the legislation that emerges from the select committee can be workable. And I hope that the Supplementary Order Paper that I have provided helps to point the way to at least some of that workability.