A consultation paper, Lobbying in the Scottish Parliament, was today published by the Standards Committee. The paper seeks views from a wide range of organisations on their experience, so far, of lobbying the Parliament, how accessible they find it and whether they wish to see regulation of lobbying introduced.

Committee convener Mike Rumbles explains:

"One of the key principles set out by the Consultative Steering Group on the Scottish Parliament was that the Parliament should be open, accessible and responsive and that it should develop procedures which make possible a participative approach to the development, consideration and scrutiny of policy and legislation. Despite the sometimes negative connotations, lobbying is a legitimate part of the democratic process.

"As part of our committee’s inquiry process into examining lobbying practices in Scotland, we sent a questionnaire to all MSPs during the summer recess. From their responses we can see that there is already a good deal of lobbying activity going on in Parliament. For example, our survey of MSPs showed that:

"Today’s consultation paper addresses some of the principal issues upon which our committee’s inquiry will focus and should help us to canvas a broad range of opinions. We hope that we will receive a broad range of responses which will help us to determine how best to proceed with the issue of lobbying."

The specific objectives of the consultation are:

• To gather information on the manner in which lobbying groups organise themselves and operate in relation to the Parliament.

• To invite those groups to provide comments on their own experience of lobbying in the first year of the Parliament.

The questionnaire which accompanies the consultation paper also seeks respondents’ views on both statutory regulation and a voluntary code of conduct for lobbyists.

The Committee will initially review responses at its meeting on 19 December. Thereafter, it will decide on how best to proceed with its inquiry, which will be the subject of a Committee Report.

The consultation paper is available on the Parliament’s website at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/official_report/cttee/stan-00/st-consult.htm

or from the address below.

Responses should be sent by 5 December 2000 to:

BACKGROUND NOTES

Responses to the consultation paper are invited from all interested organisations or individuals.