Leveson Inquiry

Lord Beecham Excerpts

Wednesday 25th April 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My noble friend is quite correct that in January the Cabinet Office announced that it was looking actively at a statutory register of lobbyists. It was interesting that we saw in the debate just before this one support for the positive power of lobbyists to make valuable changes to things going forward. On the actual dates, I am afraid that I do not have the answer, but I will write to him.

[Lord Beecham]

Will the Minister say whether the Government think it right that they should seek from the most interested party in an application of the kind that has precipitated this affair a comment on the submission of another interested party opposing that application?

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, there were many aspects of the matter that need more inquiry and further looking into. On the issue that the noble Lord raised, we need to look at exactly what happened and who was told what, and why. There may well come out of that lessons about what we could learn to do better in future. But he is right that that is certainly an area of concern.