Lobbying act must be repealed or reformed, sector leaders tell government

A letter to Cabinet Office minister Damian Green from a number of sector bodies says the legislation is ‘confusing and burdensome’

The lobbying act is a “confusing and burdensome piece of legislation that ultimately harms our democracy” and should be urgently reformed, charity sector leaders have told the government.

In a letter to Damian Green, the Cabinet Office minister, organisations including the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and the charity chief executives body Acevo call for Lord Hodgson’s reforms to the lobbying act to be implemented urgently.

The lobbying act sets spending limits and makes it a legal necessity for all organisations that spend more that £20,000 in England or £10,000 in Wales on regulated campaigning in the year prior to an election to register with the Electoral Commission.

Lord Hodgson’s review of the lobbying act, which was commissioned by the government and published last year, called for a number of reforms, including reducing the regulated campaign period to four months before an election and changes to the rules on joint campaigning.

But the government has yet to implement Lord Hodgson’s recommendations, and the letter calls for a meeting to discuss how the lobbying act’s “unintended consequences can be minimised”.

The letter says: “While we recognise that regulation is necessary to ensure that no one individual or organisation can exert undue influence at an election, the lobbying act has had a disproportionate impact on charity campaigning.

“This is despite the fact that, unlike organisations from many other sectors, charities are already subject to strict limitations on their political activity under charity law.

“The excessive and unreasonable red tape the lobbying act places on charities made it harder for them to campaign at the 2017 general election. Charities also find many of the non-party campaigning rules ambiguous.

“We are concerned that this caused many charities not to engage, resulting in some important voices being lost from public debate.”

More than 50 charities have recently called for the lobbying act to be repealed, citing the “enormous administrative and financial burden” it places on the sector.

There have also been warnings that the risk of another snap election after the 8 June election failed to provide any party with an outright majority means the next period of regulated campaigning might have already begun.

Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the NCVO, said: “There is clear cross-party and sector support for the changes Lord Hodgson suggested. Adoption of them will be an important first step for the new government to show it is listening to charities, which are crucial to building a stronger economy and society.”

Vicky Browning, chief executive of Acevo, said: “Charity leaders have told me that compliance with this ambiguous legislation has significant costs attached, particularly in terms of time, labour and money, which distracts and detracts from their activities.

“It is important that the new government now enacts the recommendations of its own review of the act.”

The Charities Aid Foundation, the infrastructure body Navca, the Small Charities Coalition and the international development network Bond also signed the letter.

The letter comes after a report from the UN Human Rights Council that was released two days before the general election. It criticised the lobbying act’s “chilling effect” on the charity sector and claimed it had a disproportionate impact on charities in comparison with the private sector.

Greenpeace, which was fined £30,000 by the Electoral Commission earlier this year for contravening the lobbying act prior to the 2015 general election, said the UN’s comments showed the act was an “international embarrassment” and should be either repealed or reformed.

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‘Get a backbone’ during the election, Bubb urges charity leaders

The former leader of Acevo, Sir Stephen Bubb, has criticised the sector for allowing itself to be silenced on the issues by the lobbying act

Charities have failed to speak out against the Conservatives’ manifesto plans for social care because they are afraid of falling foul of the lobbying act, according to Sir Stephen Bubb.

Bubb, director of the think tank Charity Futures, said the lobbying act was gagging charities, but he also criticised charities for allowing themselves to be silenced by it and called on sector leaders to “get a backbone”.

The Conservative Party has been criticised for the social care proposals in its manifesto, such as the inclusion of the value of elderly people’s homes when estimating how much they should contribute to their own care. But Bubb said not enough of this criticism had come from charities.

“The social care proposals strike at the heart of what charities do and they should be up in arms about them, but it hasn’t happened,” said Bubb, who was until last year head of the charity leaders body Acevo.

“It is two problems: there is the problem of the so-called ‘gagging act’, but also the general climate of hostility towards charities means there is a lot of self-censorship,” he said.

“Charities that once would have spoken out are keeping quiet and doing a disservice to their beneficiaries. They need to get a bit of a grip.”

The Transparency of Lobbying, Non-party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act 2014 introduced caps on the amounts that organisations – including charities – can spend on campaigning on issues that could be perceived as party political in the run-up to elections.

Both Labour and the Scottish National Party have pledged in their general election manifestos to repeal the parts of the act that relate to charity campaigning.

“Many charity leaders do feel that if they do speak out there will be some form of comeback on them,” Bubb said. But this response was “simply not good enough”, he added.

“The deafening silence from charities in the last few months has been extraordinary, and the bottom line is that we are letting our beneficiaries down,” he said. “Particularly the health and social care sector: it needs sorting and charities should be at the forefront of demanding action and answers.

“It is not enough to hunker down and keep their heads below the parapet. Some sector leaders need to get a backbone: that’s what they’re being paid for.”

Responding to Bubb’s comments, Steve Clapperton, campaigns manager at the Charities Aid Foundation, said the idea that some charities had felt unable to speak out on behalf of their beneficiaries during the general election campaign was “extremely concerning”.

He said: “CAF has consistently warned that the lobbying act might deter charities from fulfilling their important role in our democracy.

“Concern is building among charities and politicians, including some MPs who initially supported the act, who have noted the absence of charities in policy debates where they would normally represent expert views on behalf of their often marginalised beneficiaries.”

He said it was “legitimate and vital that charities were able to positively influence political parties’ policies and called on all parties to come together after the election and commit to repealing the lobbying act.

Elizabeth Chamberlain, head of policy and public services at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: “Charities can, and should, campaign in the run-up to an election.

“The need to maintain their neutrality becomes greater when an election is called, but it doesn’t mean that charities lose their right – and duty – to speak up on behalf of their beneficiaries and about their cause.”

But she echoed Bubb’s concerns about self-censorship, which she said was the biggest threat to charities’ right to campaign.

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