Lobbying Transparency (In-house Lobbyists) Bill [HL]

Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 3rd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sherbourne of Didsbury (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter of Kentish Town, on bringing forward the Bill. I understand why she has done so, but I want to make a more general point about what effect the Bill might have.

One of the big problems we have had over many years has been the growing gap between government and business. We need to make sure that there is a greater understanding among people who are making economic decisions in government about what the business community needs in order to advance the economy and achieve what Governments talk about all the time, which is economic growth. I therefore ask myself how the Bill would work in practice and what effect it might have on the relationships between government and business.

I have in mind a very pro-business, proactive Government, who want to break down the barriers between business and government, and want Ministers to be out there understanding what motivates businesses and what they need to get on with their job of growing businesses, creating jobs and so on. I imagine a Chancellor of the Exchequer or a business Minister at a conference. He or she is working the room and talking to different business leaders, and a chief executive of a housebuilding company explains that he is sitting on various pockets of land and would like to develop them but the planning regulations, tax system and so on need to be changed. Does that person become an in-house consultant when he has that conversation with the Minister?

Imagine that the chief executive of an international bank is worried about what the Government might be doing around banking regulations or other aspects of banking, and he or she speaks to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and makes it clear that, if these changes in banking rules or regulations or taxation happen, the bank may have to consider relisting somewhere else. At that point, is the chief executive of the bank an in-house consultant?

I then look at the Bill before us today. New Section 5A(4) to be inserted by Clause 1(8) talks about regulations that would require the “topics of discussion” to be disclosed. Would that have an inhibiting effect on communication between business leaders and government? I do not think the noble Baroness would want to see the Bill having that sort of inhibiting effect on relations. It would be helpful, in her wind-up and perhaps when we come to the details of the Bill in Committee, for the noble Baroness to explain how we can avoid these unintended consequences.