Exclusive: the loophole that enables secret lobbying by foreign companies
A ruling by the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists has just revealed a bad mistake in the drafting of the Lobbying Act which means that a lobbying business acting only for foreign individuals, companies or businesses doesn’t have to register with the Registrar.
It’s a genuine honest-to-goodness loophole, and it’s caused by an unfortunate “borrowing” of a VAT concept by someone who didn’t fully understand it.
So we now have the very silly situation where, if I lobby ministers on behalf of UK companies, then I have to register. But if I only advise foreign businesses, governments and individuals, then I don’t. That is perverse, and it should be fixed. If it isn’t, we can expect bad actors to take advantage of the loophole, with for example existing lobbying businesses establishing subsidiaries solely to advise foreign entities.