Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill — Clause 1 — Registration of Lobbyists — Wording of Professional or Consultant Lobbyists — 9 Sep 2013 at 20:15

The majority of MPs voted to refer to "consultant" rather than "professional" lobbyists in the law introducing a register of lobbyists. The intent of those preferring "professional" appears to have been to indicate a wish to extend the Bill to cover employees lobbying on behalf of their employers as well as those operating as specialist lobbyists who lobby on behalf of external clients.

MPs were considering the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill[1]. This vote rejected a proposed amendment which stated:

  • in line 5, leave out ‘consultant’ and insert ‘professional’.

This would have taken effect on Clause (1) of the bill[2] which stated:

  • A person must not carry on the business of consultant lobbying unless—
  • (a)the person, or
  • (b)if the person is an employee, the person’s employer,is entered in the register of consultant lobbyists.

Clause 2[3] already defined consultant lobbying as being "in the course of a business and in return for payment" and Schedule 1 Part 1[4] included exemptions including for a person who "carries on a business which is mainly a non-lobbying business".

The amendment alone was on the wording, not the substance, of the Bill.

MP Jon Trickett (Hemsworth, Labour) explained the intent of his rejected amendment[5]:

  • Professional lobbyists who work in-house will not be covered under the definition in the Bill, which is why we feel the use of the term "consultant lobbyist" narrows the Bill’s scope.

Presumably had his rejected amendment passed other amendments to the Bill would have been made to bring it in-line with his intent.

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con229 (+1 tell) 0075.4%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 20100.0%
Lab0 193 (+2 tell)075.6%
LDem39 (+1 tell) 0071.4%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 1033.3%
SNP0 5083.3%
Total:268 205075.2%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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