A Holyrood committee has given its backing to legislation aimed at increasing transparency around the lobbying of politicians, but it has warned that the Bill in its current form could leave a great deal of important information unregistered.
While the general principles of the Lobbying (Scotland) Bill were endorsed in the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointment (SPPA) Committee’s stage one report, it also recommends that the Scottish Government considers bringing forward amendments to the legislation.
The Bill aims to introduce a “measured and proportionate register of lobbying activity”.
The legislation would require organisations to register following face-to-face lobbying of MSPs or ministers.
A majority of the committee took the view that the Government should review the potential impact of including all forms of communication in the Bill.
Members were also concerned that the Bill’s restriction to lobbying of MSPs and ministers was too narrow and have asked the Government to consider bringing forward amendments to broaden the definition to include communications made to other public officials.
SPPA Committee convener Stewart Stevenson said: “The committee listened carefully to those giving evidence to the inquiry and as a result, the majority view is that the Government should consider broadening the coverage of the Bill in key areas.
“The committee understands that the definition of lobbying was restricted to oral communication in order to focus the scope of information to be captured and to produce a low burden, light touch regime.
“Nevertheless, the majority view is that restricting registration to oral communications is an artificial distinction which could leave a great deal of information unregistered.
“We recommend that the Government reviews the potential impact of altering its definition to include communications of any kind, with a view to establishing what amendments to the Bill might be necessary.”