Do lobbying firms change government policy?

One of the country's leading lobbying firms, Bell Pottinger, has been exposed in an undercover sting bragging about its access to the heart of government, even claiming that they had got Cameron to talk to the Chinese premier on behalf of a client. The undercover recordings, conducted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and reported in the Independent today, claimed to expose the "dark arts" used by lobbying firms to influence the government.

The response

Downing Street vehemently denied the claims in the reports. The prime minister's official spokesman told reporters today:

It simply isn't true to say that Bell Pottinger or any other lobbying company has influenced government policy. If companies have issues then they can come and talk to the government. We have a department for Business and speak to people all the time people in the Treasury speak to businesses and businesses speak to people in Downing Street all the time... It is simply untrue to say that BP or any other lobbying company influences government. I am challenging this idea that this company or any other lobbying company have influenced policy.

Is this true? Is Number 10 right to claim that lobbying firms have not influenced government policy?

Analysis

The Number 10 denial related specifically to lobbying companies, not lobbying generally. Lobbying is a widespread, routine part of Parliament – charities, businesses, trade unions or even individual constituents will all lobby MPs to take up a cause or the government to change a law. The government openly facilitates such lobbying through consultations on its policies and meetings with groups with an interest in their policy areas.

But the scandals come thick and fast. I've been looking for recent examples where a link has been drawn between lobbying and a policy change. The first obvious one that sprang to mind is the chancellor's major decision at the Autumn statement to defer the increase in fuel duty at the autumn statement, following a major lobbying operation. On the face of this it was a grassroots drivers revolt in the form of a petition in parliament was signed by more than 100,000 people. That petition was started by FairFuelUK, a campaign group run by a lobbying firm which was in turn funded by the RAC, the Freight Transport Association and Road Haulage Association. Reality check has previously looked into FairFuelUK here.

Another was the private lobbying of ministers by the construction industry prior to its plans to relax the planning laws, which my colleague Robert Booth reported on here.

There are dozens of other examples dating back to cash for questions to the former Labour minister Stephen Byers who described himself as a "cab for hire" in his new lobbying firm.

Elizabeth France, chairman of the UK Public Affairs Council which "promotes and upholds effective self regulation for those professionally engaged in public affairs", told me that part of the problem is one of definition – what is above the board lobbying and what is clandestine.

It's difficult to know where lobbying begins and ends. I'm lobbying if I talk as an individual to my MP. The law needs a definition. If you just tot up the big consultancies you will get one idea of how big the lobbying industry is, but it's much broader than that. Trade unions and charities are lobbying just as professional lobbying companies are. It's vast and essential part of a democracy and leads to an informed debate. If it's done properly and openly it's crucial to the democratic process.

I've just been speaking with one long-standing Conservative MP with specific knowledge of the lobbying system – who asked not to be named. I think he gives a really interesting insight, describing how the influence of lobbying firms is often in fact indirect, rather than through direct contact with ministers. He said:

I think lobbying companies per se have no influence at all it's whether they enable their clients to have influence. A good lobbying company is someone in the background who advises the company on how to proceed - not pushing themselves forward. I tend not to respond to lobbyists who ring, if someone rings from a company chief executive's office I'll ask a few questions and usually find out they are working for a lobbying company. I'll see the chief executive directly, but not the lobbyist. They should draft letters, help with access, but not meet [with politicians] themselves. Companies that use lobbyists as their proxies are very stupid. Lobbying companies that operate like that are money for old rope - no value.

A long-standing Labour MP, also with a particular interest in this area, told me:

If I were in that business I wouldn't spend my time lobbying MPs – only government. If I wanted to influence the law I would do civil servants and ministers. Lobbying individual MPs makes the companies feel good, the clients feels good, even the MPs feel good, does it impact legislation? I would say that is very rare. But I'm sure it happens and it does work in government.

Helen Johnson, is chair of the Association of Professional Political Consultations, which represents lobbyists and has its own code of conduct. She runs Helen Johnson Consulting which has clients in the healthcare industries as well as charitable patient groups.

Unsurprisingly, she says that lobbying firms do indeed shape shape government policy - but it's difficult to prove it:

We can help shape government policy and direction on a whole range of things. What I would say is that it's not just lobbying firms that do that – anyone looking to lobby can make those changes in a transparent manner. We wouldn't be advocating an approach of boasting access to ministers or otherwise. We're not just working on behalf of big business but charities, voluntary groups and NGOs and so on. Many are looking for advice on how to contact ministers or politicians; how to make approaches. We won't necessarily go in and meet ministers ourselves but advise members. We wouldn't advocate being an intermediary.

There are plenty of examples that we would have that are confidential to our clients that are around projects or awareness. Whether it be access to particular treatments, concerns about what the NHS reforms might be doing to certain groups of patients. The environment for pharma companies operating in the UK. We've been involved in campaigns but it's not easy to make direct links – there are other people campaigning for the same thing. If a consultation paper comes out and you can see things your clients are concerned about and your client writes in with comments and the final decision addresses that comment you could argue your campaign has been successful but it's very difficult to pinpoint cause and affect. But we are not making claims that we can't substantiate... You can't claim cause and effect.

To give a different view, I spoke with Paul Flynn, the Labour MP for Newport West who is a member of the Public Administration Select Committee, which did the last inquiry into lobbying and recommended a statutory register. I asked him whether lobbying "worked". He said:

As the professional bullshitters lobbyists are very good at covering their tracks. You can look at government decisions on airports and so on you can see who gets the pass. We know the pressure they create, we know MPs and Lords are willing to put down amendments for money, if we put it on the amount of access they buy, certainly that's true. They certainly get into the higher reaches of government. There's also the revolving door thing – ministers go into lobbying. It's hard to say exactly why a minister changed their mind on something, but there's enough to be highly, highly suspicious. The industry wouldn't exist unless they worked.

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