All Party Groups: Lobbying

(asked on 30th March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on parliamentary integrity of the involvement of lobbyists for for-profit companies in All-Party Parliamentary Groups.


Answered by
Mark Spencer Portrait
Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 19th April 2022

The rules governing APPGs are overseen by the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and are ultimately a matter for the House. The Committee on Standards is currently undertaking a wide-ranging inquiry into the rules relating to APPGs, with the Committee’s inquiry covering the "risk of APPGs being used for access by lobbyists, other organisations or by foreign governments, and how any conflicts of interests arising can be managed". The inquiry will also cover other areas such as the transparency and appropriateness of funding of APPG activities and secretarial support, the role of external secretariats and financial governance and controls. As part of its inquiry, the Committee has taken written and oral evidence which is available on its website (https://committees.parliament.uk/work/659/allparty-parliamentary-groups/publications/). I look forward to seeing the Committee’s recommendations once its report has been published.

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