Statutory lobbying register still excludes in-house lobbyists
The Lobbying Act 2014 register covers only consultant lobbyists contacting ministers and permanent secretaries; in-house corporate lobbyists (most of the industry) are exempt. PACAC's post-legislative scrutiny and Transparency International UK's November 2025 review documented the regime's weaknesses, yet the December 2025 Anti-Corruption Strategy contained no lobbying commitment at all, a gap the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition called out explicitly. Baroness Hayter's Lobbying Transparency (In-house Lobbyists) Bill, introduced 1 June 2026, is a Lords private member's bill with no government backing. Departmental meeting disclosures remain quarterly, published months late, with one-line purpose descriptions.
Greensill demonstrated how in-house and informal lobbying escapes the register entirely. Without coverage of in-house lobbyists and timely meeting data, the public record of who influences UK policy is structurally incomplete, and every future scandal is discovered by journalists rather than disclosure.
A government-backed amendment extending registration to in-house lobbying (adopting the Hayter Bill), plus a single machine-readable platform publishing ministerial, SpAd and senior-official meetings monthly with meaningful subject descriptions.
// State-led: Instrument: government-backed amendment adopting the Hayter Bill; in-house lobbying data cannot exist without the statutory duty.
In-house lobbyists, most of the industry, stay off the register; a ready private-member bill exists but government omitted lobbying entirely from its strategy, so pressure is low.
One gap, several dossiers: entries folded into this one (1)
The research pass surfaced this gap independently in more than one domain. Those entries are merged here so the map counts it once: two halves of the same statute: the register that misses in-house lobbying and the non-party campaigning rules that constrain charity advocacy; the Covenant strand is retired as not separately fillable.
№ 7 · A Covenant without teeth, alongside unreformed advocacy law (Civic society)
The Civil Society Covenant (July 2025) is non-statutory, with no adjudication or redress when public bodies breach its principles; its Local Covenant Partnerships Fund (£11.59m) covers just 15 of 300+ English local authority areas. Meanwhile the legal environment contradicts the partnership rhetoric: the Lobbying Act 2014's Part 2 rules still chill charity campaigning (government has rejected amendment calls), CIVICUS has rated UK civic space 'obstructed' since 2023, and Human Rights Watch (January 2026) documents escalating protest restrictions. NCVO, ACEVO and Bond monitor and advocate, but no independent mechanism exists to enforce the government–civil society relationship or audit civic-space health.
Its fill: A statutory duty on public bodies to have regard to Covenant principles, with an independent review/ombudsman function reporting to Parliament; reform of Lobbying Act Part 2 (raising thresholds, clarifying issue-based campaigning); and a funded rollout of local covenant partnerships beyond the 15 pilot areas.