House of Commons - Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

Select Committee on Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards First Report

4 Other Registers

4.1 Ten years after the introduction of the Register of Members' Interests in 1974, the Select Committee on Members' Interests (a predecessor of the Committee on Standards and Privileges) conducted an inquiry into concerns about parliamentary lobbying and recommended that:

"When they are approached, Members of the House must be able readily to identify the source and true nature of the approach. Equally the full purposes of those with access to Parliament should be known. We are convinced that greater openness would now be beneficial in certain areas."[

4.2 To meet those concerns the Committee concluded that registers should be set up for Members' staff, journalists and all-party groups. The Committee's recommendations were subsequently agreed by the House on 17 December 1985 and the first registers were published in 1986. The form and substance of each register are detailed in the sections below.

Members' Staff Register

4.3 Those holding a parliamentary pass as a Member's secretary or research assistant are required to register any other occupation or employment from which they receive income exceeding half of one per cent of a Member's salary from the same source in the course of a calendar year, if that occupation or employment is in any way advantaged by the privileged access to Parliament afforded by their pass.[17] They also have to register any tangible gift (e.g. glassware) and any other benefit (e.g. hospitality, service or facilities provided) which they receive, if the value of the gift or benefit exceeds that sum and relates in any way to their work in Parliament.

4.4 The number of staff on the register fell slightly, from 1576 on 31 March 2004 to 1536 on 31 March 2005. The number of these registering an interest also fell, from 388 to 375.

Journalists' Register

4.5 Those holding a pass as a lobby journalist accredited to the Parliamentary Press Gallery or for parliamentary broadcasting are required to register any occupation or employment from which they receive income exceeding one per cent of a Member's salary from the same source in the course of a calendar year, if that occupation or employment is in any way advantaged by the privileged access to Parliament afforded by their pass.[18]

4.6 Turnover on the register is low. Of the 397 journalists on the register as at 31 March 2005, 70 had registered interests. This compares with 408 and 62 respectively at 31 March 2004.

All-Party Groups' Register

4.7 The membership of all-party groups consists mainly of backbench Members of the House of Commons and Lords but may also include ministers and non-parliamentarians. There are two types of group: subject groups (relating to a particular topic, e.g. forestry) and country groups (relating to a particular country or region).

4.8 Inclusion on the Register of All-Party Groups is compulsory for any group which includes Members of the Commons from more than one party and has at least one officer who is from the Commons. Such groups are required to register the group's title and the names of its officers. Financial and material benefits received by the group as a whole must also be registered, where the group receives during a calendar year one or more benefits whose total value is £500 or more from the same source.[19] Lastly, the group must register the name and paid employment or occupation outside Parliament of any staff servicing the group who hold a parliamentary pass, if that occupation or employment is advantaged by the passholder's privileged access to Parliament.

4.9 Groups that qualify for inclusion on the Register of All-Party Groups may also apply for inclusion on the Approved List. Both are compiled by my office. By being on the Approved List, a group qualifies for certain entitlements, largely to do with use of the House's facilities. Additional rules apply to groups on the List. For example, they must hold annual elections for their officers and must also register the names of a minimum of ten Members from the Government party and ten from the Opposition parties. All but 6 groups are on both the Register and the Approved List.

4.10 The number of registered groups as at 31 March 2005 showed a significant increase over that in 2004, being 433 as against 401. Of these 122 (113) were country groups and 321 (288) were subject groups. The number registering the receipt of financial or material benefits increased from 209 to 269.

Recent changes to the rules on All Party Groups

4.11 In preparation for the required re-registration of all-party groups following a general election, my office reviewed the forms and guidance it issues to groups and submitted its findings and recommendations to the Administration Committee and the Committee on Standards and Privileges.

4.12 As a result, the Committee on Standards and Privileges decided that with effect from the start of the present Parliament, the financial threshold for the registration of benefits received by groups should be raised from £500 to £1000 and that any subsequent donations received from the same source in the course of a calendar year need only be registered when their aggregate value since the last such registration exceeded £500.

4.13 The Administration Committee decided that a group's registered contact person should henceforth be one of its officers (and therefore an MP or Peer), since it is they who are ultimately responsible for the group and its conduct of its activities.

4.14 The Administration Committee also considered concerns about the increasing number of groups but concluded that restricting the number would unjustifiably limit the extent to which Members could engage with outside interest groups.

4.15 Overall the effect of these modest changes should be, by updating the threshold for registration, to ease some of the burden of regulation whilst ensuring that effective accountability arrangements continue in place.

Overlap between the registers

4.16 Overlap between the various Registers kept by my office is an increasingly common occurrence. Subject to the different financial thresholds that apply to each of the registers, examples arise when:

a) Hospitality (eg relating to overseas visits) is received by an all-party group. This should be registered on both the Groups' and Members' register (and may also need to be registered with the Electoral Commission, depending on its value to each individual Member).

b) An external organisation or individual subsidises a staff member's salary. This should be registered on both the Staff and Members' register, and if the staff member acts as part of the staff to an all-party group, on the Groups' register as well.

4.17 It is important that Members keep in mind the potential need to make entries in more than one of the Registers arising from the same circumstances.

Access to the registers