Joomla! site syndication http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org 2008-05-17T04:01:24+01:00 http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org/images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2008-01-18T18:18:02+01:00 http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org http://www.lobbyingtransparency.org/content/view/3/ The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency (ALT) is an alliance of civil society groups concerned about the growing influence of professional lobbying on Government decision-making and life in the UK. Lobbying is widespread in the UK. The lobbying industry, which today includes law and accountancy firms, management consultancies, think tanks, charities and others, has grown to be worth an estimated £1.9 billion a year, the majority of which comes from commercial interests. At the moment there is no way for the public to know which interests are lobbying politicians and officials, and which areas of UK life they are trying to influence. We think the public should know. The Alliance wants the government to improve the transparency of lobbying by introducing a simple mandatory system that requires disclosure of all lobbyists’ activities above a minimum threshold. We believe only increased transparency can begin to restore trust in Government decision-making and make ministers, elected representatives and officials more accountable to the public. Lobbyists and vested interests are frequently granted privileged access to Parliament and decision-makers. Similarly, policy makers and their staff regularly leave office to join the corporate world (the ‘revolving door’). So, we also want Government to introduce rules that put an end to privileged access and slow down the revolving door. ALT's Goals (content/view/1/4)