The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) has welcomed the government's commitment to "look closely" at the legislation surrounding transparency around lobbying and the rules relating to members of the House of Lords lobbying.
The commitments were made by Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, on Monday afternoon in a statement on standards in public life. The statement followed revelations surrounding information released in the Jeffrey Epstein files around Peter Mandelson's alleged lobbying on behalf of the lobbying firm he co-founded.
Other commitments include looking into banning second jobs for MPs and governmental use of non-corporate communication channels.
Alastair McCapra, CIPR Chief Executive, said: "It has taken an awful scandal to get us to this point, but the CIPR welcomes the broad measures announced today. We stand ready to work with the government to ensure that reforms are meaningful and bring about the wholesale changes that are required to bring accountability and transparency into lobbying and the wider standards landscape. After years of research, polling, and campaigning, the CIPR is clear that this cannot be another missed opportunity as previous reforms have been. Each was meant to bring about changes to the system and yet the scandals kept coming.
Our lobbying laws have never been fit-for-purpose. If trust is to be rebuilt, we must begin by fixing the system that enables them."