The Government’s proposed anti-lobbying laws have been amended after charities warned the Leader of the Commons that the new Bill could affect their ability to campaign.
Andrew Lansley made the concession after talks with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), which had been a prominent critic of the Transparency of Lobbying, non-Party Campaigning, and Trade Union Administration Bill.
The Government had sought to bring in changes that would align the test for third parties with party campaign expenditure, restricting spending “for election purposes”, but charities, campaign groups, unions and many politicians, some of whom described the Bill as “seriously flawed”, had warned that the complex law could be interpreted too widely.
In addition, in a report published last week, the Electoral Commission warned that there were “significant issues of workability” with the Bill as it stood and the TUC even suggested that it could prevent them from holding their annual conference.
Now the Government proposes to go back to the situation under existing legislation, which defines controlled expenditure as spending “which can reasonably be regarded as intended to promote or procure electoral success”.
Mr Lansley said that the Government had always been clear that it had no intention of preventing charities campaigning on policies and issues as they always have, which was welcomed by Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of the NCVO.
The Commons Leader added that his objective is that the Bill still regulates effectively when organisations directly try to promote election candidates and parties, which was the original intention. The Government will also amend it to ensure that the lobbying provisions will not prevent MPs from carrying out their normal duties.